The Death and Life of Great British Cities

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

No 20420, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

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.

Keywords: Quantitative; economic; geography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F63 N93 O14 R13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-07
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