Recent literature suggests that the positive impact of population density on wages, the canonical measure of agglomeration effects, is multiples higher in developing countries than in advanced economies. This poses an urban productivity puzzle because on-the-ground observations do not suggest...

Using geo-coded, firm-level data on more than 51,000 establishments in 649 metropolitan areas in 98 developing economies, from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys and a new global database on city-level mobility and congestion, this paper estimates the "pure" firm productivity gains of urban...

This paper follows an algorithm that considers different dimensions of linkages across service and manufacturing industries to identify a cluster configuration of the Mexican economy and analyze their role in the economic performance of regions. It identifies 24 clusters and analyzes their...

This paper exploits time and geographic variation in the adoption of Special Economic Zones in India to assess the direct and spillover effects of the program. We combine geocoded firm-level data and geocoded SEZs using a concentric ring approach, thus creating a novel dataset of firms with...

While most empirical studies document that cognitive and social skills are strong predictors of individual earnings, their impact is not homogenous in space. We argue that dense urban settings utilize cognitive and social skills more intensively than rural areas, therefore the labour market...

This paper exploits time and geographic variation in the adoption of Special Economic Zones in India to assess the direct and spillover effects of the program. We combine geocoded firm-level data and geocoded SEZs using a concentric ring approach, thus creating a novel dataset of firms with...

Recent literature suggests that the positive impact of population density on wages, the canonical measure of agglomeration effects, is multiples higher in developing countries than in advanced economies. This poses an urban productivity puzzle because on-the-ground observations do not suggest...

Using geo-coded, firm-level data on more than 51,000 establishments in 649 metropolitan areas in 98 developing economies, from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys and a new global database on city-level mobility and congestion, this paper estimates the "pure” firm productivity gains of urban...

We analyze the change in the urban wage premium over the last 60 years. We focus on differences by gender and skill levels, with an emphasis on changes throughout the earnings distribution. We assess the importance of both changing selection into urban areas, as well as the importance of shifts...

Understanding the benefits of dense agglomerations is important for decisions on where to live and for our understanding of deep economic disadvantage. This paper is the first to quantify the economic impact of urban density on individual wages, referred to as the urban wage premium, in...

We compare the geographic location of patent citations to those of the cited patents, as evidence of the extent to which knowledge spillovers are geographically localized. We find that citations to U.S. patents are more likely to come from the U.S., and more likely to come from the same state...

In recent empirical literature on spatial agglomeration, many papers find evidence consistent with location-specific externalities of some sort. Our willingness to accept evidence of agglomeration economies depends on how well key estimation problems have been addressed. Three issues are...

Recent theories of economic geography suggest that firms in the same industry may be drawn to the same locations because proximity generates positive externalities or 'agglomeration effects.' Under this view, chance events and government inducements can have a lasting influence on the...

Empirical research on cities starts with a spatial equilibrium condition: workers and firms are assumed to be indifferent across space. This condition implies that research on cities is different from research on countries, and that work on places within countries needs to consider population,...

This paper provides the first systematic analysis of persistent urban vibrancy in human capital supply in explaining firm valuation dispersion in China. We find persistent, significant city-to-city differences in Tobin’s q, especially among large or mature firms. To explain such geographic...

We use Japanese prefectural wage and land price data to estimate the magnitude of agglomeration effects in manufacturing and finance. We also examine the range of agglomeration effects by estimating the extent to which they diminish with distance, using a specification that encompasses the polar...

Business agglomeration is a striking feature in the sharing economy due to location advantages, especially in home-sharing platforms. Listing agglomeration brings both agglomeration and localized competition effects, but it is still unclear which effect is stronger and how such effect varies...

Based on recent theoretical developments I argue that the average level of human capital is a local public good. Cities with higher average levels of human capital should therefore have higher wages and higher land rents. After conditioning on the characteristics of individual workers and...

China strongly restricts rural-rural, urban-urban, and rural-urban migration. The result which this paper documents is a surplus of labor in agriculture. However, the paper argues that these restrictions also lead to insufficient agglomeration of economic activity within both rural industrial...

Should the national government undertake policies aimed at strengthening the economies of particular localities or regions? Agglomeration economies and human capital spillovers suggest that such policies could enhance welfare. However, the mere existence of agglomeration externalities does not...

Using firm-level data covering 709 cities in 128 countries, we examine the role of a comprehensive list of business and institutional environment variables at the sub-national level in explaining firm employment and productivity growth. We find basic protection (with corruption as an element),...

We consider whether external urban economic advantages (agglomeration economies) vary with time and space using a simple economic model and detailed micro-data on 134 locations in New Zealand for the period 1976-2018. We find subtle temporal variation, with estimates peaking in 1991 and then...

The fundamental purpose of university geographic clustering is to gather resources through "agglomeration" to improve the performance of higher education and scientific research. However, it has been debated whether university clusters can achieve the latter goal. With the help of the...

We study the link between subnational capital cities and urban development using a global data set of hundreds of first-order administrative and capital city reforms from 1987 until 2018. We show that gaining subnational capital status has a sizable effect on city growth in the medium run. We...

This paper analyzes the early development of new establishments evaluating the role of spatial selection and agglomeration. The analysis shows a clear and strong selection of more productive new establishments into larger regions, regardless of the foundation type. While at the end of the...