The Death and Life of Great British Cities

Stephan Heblich, Dávid Krisztián Nagy, Alex Trew and Yanos Zylberberg

Bristol Economics Discussion Papers from School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK

Abstract: Does industrial concentration shape the life and death of cities? We identify settlements from historical maps of England and Wales (1790–1820), isolate exogenous variation in their late 19th-century size and industrial concentration, and estimate the causal impact of size and concentration on later dynamics. Industrial concentration has a negative effect on long-run productivity—independent of industry trends and consistent with cross-industry Jacobs externalities. A spatial model quantifies the role of fundamentals, industry trends, and Jacobs externalities in shaping industry-city dynamics and isolates a new, dynamic trade-off in the design of place-based policies.

Date: 2025-04-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul and nep-his
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bri:uobdis:25/797

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