Population Centers and Coordination: Evidence from County-Seat Wars
Amrita Kulka and
Cory Smith
Additional contact information
Amrita Kulka: University of Warwick
Cory Smith: University of Maryland (AREC)
The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics
Abstract:
We study the process of long-run urban growth using a unique setting of close elections that determined “county seats” (capitals) in the frontier United States. Employing a regression discontinuity design, we show that winning towns rapidly became the economic and population centers of their counties as new migrants coordinated on them as destinations. This coordination was largest in the early years of a county’s history, but limited in later decades. Using generalized random forests, we show that the economic changes were not zero sum locally: specific choices of county seat could increase long-run county population and income. As county administration was limited in this era, the public sector did not play a substantial role in this growth. Instead, these results illustrate how a political process can select spatial equilibria through a shock that is neither related to locational fundamentals nor confers direct productivity advantages on the location.
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro, nep-his and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/w ... erp_1518_-_kulka.pdf
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wrk:warwec:1518
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Margaret Nash ().