JOB DECENTRALIZATION AND RESIDENTIAL LOCATION

Leah Boustan and Robert Margo

No dp-177, Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series from Boston University - Department of Economics

Abstract: How does the spatial distribution of employment opportunities influence residential location? We revisit this classic question in urban economics by exploiting a natural experiment generated by the history of state capitals. Many state employees in capital cities work in centrally located government buildings that were constructed in the nineteenth century, while state workers elsewhere mirror the decentralization of the private sector. We compare the work and residential locations of state workers in capital and non-capital cities relative to other workers in their metropolitan areas. Our results suggest that assigning 1,000 jobs to the central city would attract approximately 250 working residents to the city. Evidence from other industries with historically-determined locations, including the postal service and defense contractors, corroborates our basic finding.

Pages: 32
Date: 2008-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Forthcoming, G. Burtless and J. Pack, eds. BROOKINGS-WHARTON PAPERS ON URBAN AFFAIRS 2009

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.bu.edu/econ/ied/dp/papers/dp%20177IED_B ... Decentralization.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.bu.edu/econ/ied/dp/papers/dp%20177IED_Boustan_Margo_Job_Decentralization.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.bu.edu/econ/ied/dp/papers/dp%20177IED_Boustan_Margo_Job_Decentralization.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:bos:iedwpr:dp-177

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series from Boston University - Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Program Coordinator ().