Urban Growth Shadows

Klaus Desmet, David Cuberes and Jordan Rappaport

No 15807, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Does a location's growth benefit or suffer from being geographically close to large economic centers? Spatial proximity may lead to competition and hurt growth, but it may also improve market access and enhance growth. Using data on U.S. counties and metro areas for the period 1840-2017, we document this tradeoff between urban shadows and urban access. Proximity to large urban centers was negatively associated with growth between 1840 and 1920, and positively associated with growth after 1920. Using a two-city spatial model, we show that the secular evolution of inter-city and intra-city commuting costs can account for this. Alternatively, the long-run decline in inter-city shipping costs relative to intra-city commuting costs is also consistent with these observed patterns.

Keywords: Urban shadows; Urban access; Commuting; Spatial economics; Urban systems; City growth; United states; 1840-2017 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N91 N92 R11 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-his and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP15807 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Urban growth shadows (2021)
Working Paper: Urban Growth Shadows (2021)
Working Paper: Urban Growth Shadows (2019)
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:cpr:ceprdp:15807

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP15807

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().