Manhattan Transfer: Productivity effects of agglomeration in American authorship

Lukas Kuld, Sara Mitchell and Christiane Hellmanzik ()
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Christiane Hellmanzik: Department of Business and Economics, TU Dortmund

Economic Papers from Trinity College Dublin, Economics Department

Abstract: We investigate quantity and quality effects of agglomeration in the careers of American authors. We combine novel yearly data on publications and work location of 471 eminent authors with US Census data to provide a complete picture of industry concentration and agglomeration economies from 1850-2000. We find that, on aggregate, an author has 40\% higher odds of publishing while living in New York City. The effect size increases with industry concentration but declines with industry maturity and technological progress after WWII. Taking relocation of working-age authors to New York City as an event study, we see a significant immediate increase in publications after arriving. In comparison, the penalty of moving away from the city is mild. Works published while an author lived in New York City were more likely to achieve critical acclaim and are more likely to have lasting influence in terms of present-day popularity.

Keywords: Agglomeration economies; urban history; geographic clustering; productivity; literature; creativity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N30 N90 R11 Z11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52 pages
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-geo, nep-his, nep-sog and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tcd:tcduee:tep0821

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