A Long-Run Perspective on the Spatial Concentration of Manufacturing Industries in the United States

Nicholas Crafts and Alexander Klein

No 12257, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We construct spatially-weighted indices of the geographic concentration of U.S. manufacturing industries during the period 1880 to 1997 using data from the Census of Manufactures and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Several important new results emerge from this exercise. First, we find that average spatial concentration was much lower in the late-20th- than the late-19th century and that this was the outcome of a continuing reduction over time. Second, the persistent tendency to greater spatial dispersion was characteristic of most manufacturing industries. Third, even so, economically and statistically significant spatial concentration was pervasive throughout this period.

Keywords: Manufacturing belt; Spatial concentration; Transport costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N62 N92 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-gro, nep-his, nep-tid and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Working Paper: A Long-Run Perspective on the Spatial Concentration of Manufacturing Industries in the United States (2017)
Working Paper: A Long-Run Perspective on the Spatial Concentration of Manufacturing Industries in the United States (2017)
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