[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tuf/tuftec/0816.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Global Spatial Distribution of Economic Activity: Nature, History, and the Role of Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Vernon Henderson
  • Tim Squires
  • Adam Storeygard
  • David Weil
Abstract
We study the distribution of economic activity, as proxied by lights at night, across 250,000 grid cells of average are 560 kilometers. We first document that nearly half of the variation can be explained by a parsimonious set of physical geography attributes. A full set of country indicators only explains a further 10%. When we divide geographic characteristics into two groups, those primarily important for agriculture and those primarily important for trade, we find that the agriculture variable have relatively more explanatory power in countries that developed early and the trade variable have relatively more in countries that developed late, despite the fact that the latter group of countries are far more dependent on agriculture today. We explain this apparent puzzle in a model in which two technological shocks occur, one increasing agricultural productivity and the other decreasing transportation costs, and in which agglomeration economies lead to persistence in urban locations. In countries that developed early, structural transformation due to rising agricultural productivity began at a time when transport costs were still relatively high, so urban agglomerations were localized in agricultural regions. When transport costs fell well before structural transformation. To exploit urban scale economies, manufacturing agglomerated in relatively few, often coastal, locations. With structural transformation, these initial coastal locations grew, without formation of more cities in the agricultural interior.

Suggested Citation

  • Vernon Henderson & Tim Squires & Adam Storeygard & David Weil, 2016. "The Global Spatial Distribution of Economic Activity: Nature, History, and the Role of Trade," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0816, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    • Handle: RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0816
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ase.tufts.edu/economics/documents/papers/2016/storeygardGlobalSpatial.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Broadberry,Stephen & O'Rourke,Kevin H., 2010. "The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Europe," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521708395, September.
    2. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong Wha, 2013. "A new data set of educational attainment in the world, 1950–2010," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 184-198.
    3. Broadberry,Stephen & O'Rourke,Kevin H. (ed.), 2010. "The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Europe 2 Volume Hardback Set," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521199179.
    4. repec:cup:cbooks:9780521128247 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alfonso Díez‐Minguela & Rafael González‐Val & Julio Martinez‐Galarraga & M. Teresa Sanchis & Daniel A. Tirado, 2020. "The long‐term relationship between economic development and regional inequality: South‐West Europe, 1860–2010," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 479-508, June.
    2. Braun, Sebastian Till & Franke, Richard, 2022. "Railways, Growth, and Industrialization in a Developing German Economy, 1829–1910," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(4), pages 1183-1221, December.
    3. C. Knick Harley, 2013. "British and European Industrialization," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _111, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    4. Michal BURZYŃSKI & Christoph DEUSTER & Frédéric DOCQUIER, 2018. "The Geography of Talent: Development Implications and Long-Run Prospects," Working Papers P221, FERDI.
    5. Nicola Amendola & Giacomo Gabbuti & Giovanni Vecchi, 2018. "On the use of composite indices in economic history. Lessons from Italy, 1861-2017," HHB Working Papers Series 11, The Historical Household Budgets Project.
    6. Nicola Amendola & Giacomo Gabbuti & Giovanni Vecchi, 2023. "On some problems of using the Human Development Index in economic history," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 27(4), pages 477-505.
    7. Paqué Karl-Heinz, 2016. "Der Wandel des Wachstums: Anmerkungen zur Dynamik von Wohlstand, Technologie und Verteilung aus Anlass von Robert J. Gordons Buch „The Rise and Fall of American Growth“," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 17(3), pages 289-308, September.
    8. Lehmann-Hasemeyer, Sibylle & Prettner, Klaus & Tscheuschner, Paul, 2023. "The scientific revolution and its implications for long-run economic development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    9. Ryo Izawa, 2018. "Corporate Structural Change for Tax Avoidance: British Multinational Enterprises and International Double Taxation between the First and Second World Wars," Discussion Papers CRR Discussion Paper Series A: General 33, Shiga University, Faculty of Economics,Center for Risk Research.
    10. Burzynski, Michal & Deuster, Christoph & Docquier, Frédéric, 2020. "Geography of skills and global inequality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    11. John E. Murray & Javier Silvestre, 2020. "Integration in European coal markets, 1833–1913," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(3), pages 668-702, August.
    12. Boško Mijatović & Milan Zavadjil, 2023. "Serbia on the path to modern economic growth," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 76(1), pages 199-220, February.
    13. Nikolay Nenovsky & Pencho Penchev, 2018. "Between Enthusiasm and Skepticism: Bulgarian Economists and Europe (1878-1944)," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(1), pages 27-55.
    14. Müller Uwe, 2018. "East Central Europe in the First Globalization (1850-1914)," Studia Historiae Oeconomicae, Sciendo, vol. 36(1), pages 71-90, December.
    15. Ciccarelli, Carlo & Magazzino, Cosimo & Marcucci, Edoardo, 2021. "Early development of Italian railways and industrial growth: A regional analysis," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    16. Kouli, Yaman & König, Jörg, 2021. "Measuring European economic integration 1880 - 1913: A new approach," DICE Discussion Papers 374, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    17. Lo Turco, Alessia & Maggioni, Daniela & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2019. "Financial dependence and growth: The role of input-output linkages," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 308-328.
    18. Iamsiraroj, Sasi, 2016. "The foreign direct investment–economic growth nexus," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 116-133.
    19. Markus Brueckner & Daniel Lederman, 2018. "Inequality and economic growth: the role of initial income," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 341-366, September.
    20. Marcén, Miriam & Molina, José Alberto & Morales, Marina, 2018. "The effect of culture on the fertility decisions of immigrant women in the United States," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 15-28.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agriculture; physical geography; development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0816. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Marcus Weir (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://ase.tufts.edu/economics .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.