Spatial growth and industry age

Klaus Desmet and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg

Journal of Economic Theory, 2009, vol. 144, issue 6, 2477-2502

Abstract: Between 1970 and 2000 employment growth across U.S. counties exhibited very different patterns in manufacturing and services. Whereas manufacturing employment growth was negatively related to initial manufacturing employment across the entire distribution of counties, service employment growth was positively related to initial service employment for intermediate sized counties. This paper presents a theory to rationalize these facts. Local sectoral growth is driven by technological diffusion across space and depends on the age of the sector. The theory correctly predicts the relation between county employment growth and initial county employment in manufacturing at the turn of the 20th century.

Keywords: Spatial; growth; Industry; age; Technology; diffusion; Spillovers; Distribution; of; economic; activity; Scale-dependent; growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (94)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Spatial Growth and Industry Age (2007)
Working Paper: Spatial Growth and Industry Age (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:144:y:2009:i:6:p:2477-2502

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