The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies

Pierre-Philippe Combes and Laurent Gobillon

No 8508, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We propose an integrated framework to discuss the empirical literature on the local determinants of agglomeration effects. We start by presenting the theoretical mechanisms that ground individual and aggregate empirical specifications. We gradually introduce static effects, dynamic effects, and workers' endogenous location choices. We emphasise the impact of local density on productivity but we also consider many other local determinants supported by theory. Empirical issues are then addressed. Most important concerns are about endogeneity at the local and individual levels, the choice of a productivity measure between wage and TFP, and the roles of spatial scale, firms' characteristics, and functional forms. Estimated impacts of local determinants of productivity, employment, and firms' locations choices are surveyed for both developed and developing economies. We finally provide a discussion of attempts to identify and quantify specific agglomeration mechanisms.

Keywords: agglomeration gains; density; sorting; learning; location choices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 R12 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 105 pages
Date: 2014-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-geo, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

Forthcoming - published in: Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, volume 5A, Gilles Duranton, Vernon Henderson and Will Strange (eds.), Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 247-348

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https://docs.iza.org/dp8508.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Chapter: The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies (2015)
Working Paper: The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies (2015)
Working Paper: The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies (2015)
Working Paper: The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies (2015)
Working Paper: The empirics of agglomeration economies (2014)
Working Paper: The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies (2014)
Working Paper: The empirics of agglomeration economies (2014)
Working Paper: The empirics of agglomeration economies (2014)
Working Paper: The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies (2014)
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