An energy-centric theory of agglomeration

Juan Moreno-Cruz and M. Scott Taylor

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2017, vol. 84, issue C, 153-172

Abstract: This paper sets out a simple spatial model of energy exploitation to ask how the location and productivity of energy resources affects the distribution of economic activity across geographic space. By combining elements from energy economics and economic geography we link the productivity of energy resources to the incentives for economic activity to agglomerate. We find a novel scaling law links the productivity of energy resources to population sizes, while rivers and roads effectively magnify productivity. We show how our theory's predictions concerning a single core, aggregate to predictions over regional landscapes and city size distributions at the country level.

Keywords: Energy; Geography; Agglomeration; Economic history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N9 Q40 R12 R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: An Energy-centric Theory of Agglomeration (2017)
Working Paper: An Energy-centric Theory of Agglomeration (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:84:y:2017:i:c:p:153-172

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2017.02.006

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