Results

Journal article

Journal of the European Economic Association:

City of dreams

Bigger cities offer more valuable experiences and opportunities in exchange for higher housing costs. While higher-ability workers benefit more from bigger cities, they are not more likely to move to one. Our model of ur...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

City of dreams

Higher ability workers benefit more from bigger cities while housing costs there are higher for everyone, and yet there is little sorting on ability. A possible explanation is that young individuals have an imperfect ass...Read more...

SERC/Urban and Spatial Programme Discussion Paper

The Productivity Advantages of Large Cities: Distinguishing Agglomeration from Firm Selection

Firms are more productive on average in larger cities. Two explanations have been offered: agglomeration economies (larger cities promote interactions that increase productivity) and firm selection (larger cities toughen...Read more...

SERC/Urban and Spatial Programme Discussion Paper

Labour Pooling as a Source of Agglomeration: An Empirical Investigation

We provide empirical evidence on the role of labour market pooling in determining the spatial concentration of UK manufacturing establishments. This role arises because large concentrations of employment iron out idiosyn...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Decomposing the Growth in Residential Land in the United States

This paper decomposes the growth in land occupied by residences in the United States to give the relative contributions of changing demographics versus increases in the land area used by individual households. Between 19...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Fat City: The Relationship Between Urban Sprawl and Obesity

We study the relationship between urban sprawl and obesity. Using data that tracks individuals over time, we find no evidence that urban sprawl causes obesity. We show that previous findings of a positive relationship mo...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Urban sprawl

New research by Henry Overman and colleagues provides a detailed picture of how land is used in US cities – and challenges conventional wisdom about urban sprawl....Read more...

Journal article

The Quarterly Journal of Economics:

Causes of sprawl: a portrait from space

We study the extent to which US urban development is sprawling and what determines differences in sprawl across space. Using remote-sensing data to track the evolution of land use on a grid of 8.7 billion 30 x 30 metre c...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

From Sectoral To Functional Urban Specialisation

We document and then develop a model explaining and relating changes in firms' organisation and in urban structure. Sharing of business services by headquarters and of sector-specific intermediates by production plants ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Nursery Cities: Urban Diversity, Process Innovation and the Life-Cycle of Products

A simple model of process innovation is proposed, where firms learn about their ideal production process by making prototypes. We build around this a dynamic general equilibrium model, and derive conditions under which d...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Unemployment Clusters Across European Regions and Countries

European regions have experienced a polarisation of their unemployment rates between 1986 and 1996, as regions with intermediate rates have been driven by changes in regional employment, only partly offset by labour forc...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Diversity and Specialisation in Cities: Why, Where and When does it Matter?

Why are some cities specialised and others diversified? What are the advantages and disadvantages of urban specialisation and diversity? To what extent does the structure of cities, and the activities of the firms and pe...Read more...

Journal article

World Bank Economic Review:

Trading Arrangements and Industrial Development

This article outlines a new approach for analyzing the role of trade in promoting industrial development. It offers an explanation as to why firms are reluctant to move to countries with lower labor costs and shows how t...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Agglomeration and Economic Development: Import Substitution versus Trade Liberalisation

This paper analyses a model of economic development in which international inequalities in the location of industry and income are supported by the agglomeration of industry in a subset of countries. Economic development...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Recipe for reform: regional policy for an enlarging, European Union

Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Agglomeration in a global Economy: A Survey

This review of recent contributions reveals common conclusions about the effects of integration on location. For high trade costs, the need to supply markets locally encourages firms to spread across different regions. I...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Trading Arrangements and Industrial Development

This paper outlines a new approach for analysing the role of trade in promoting industrial development. It offers an explanation as to why firms are reluctant to move to economics with lower labour costs, and shows how t...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

The Rise and Fall of Regional Inequalities

This paper analyses how the degree of regional integration affects regional differences in production structures and income levels. With high transport costs, industry is spead across regions to meet final consumer demad...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Urbanisation Patterns: European vs Less Developed Countries

We develop a model in which the interaction between transport costs, increasing returns, and labour migration across sectors and regions creates a tendency for urban agglomeration. Demand from rural areas favours urban d...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

The Spread of Industry: Spatial Agglomeration in Economic Development

This paper describes the spread of industry from country to country as a region grows. All industrial sectors are initially agglomerated in one country, tied together by input-output links between firms. Growth expands i...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Preferential Trading Arrangements and Industrial Location

This paper considers the location effects of geographically discriminatory trade policy. A preferential move towards a customs union pulls industry into the integrating countries. When internal barriers fall below some c...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

The Dynamics of Urbanisation

This paper considers the urbanisation dynamics induced by the migration decision of workers and the locational choice of the monopolistically competitive vertically linked firms. With high interregional transport costs, ...Read more...