Since 1980, US wage growth has been fastest in large cities. Empirically, we show that most of this urban-biased growth reflects wage growth at large Business Services firms, which are also the most intensive users of information and communications technology (ICT) capital in the US economy. We...

Virtually all theories of economic growth predict a positive relationship between population size and productivity. In this paper I study a particular historical episode to provide direct evidence for the empirical relevance of such scale effects. In the aftermath of the Second World War about...

Gotland is Sweden’s largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. While Sweden has numerous Islands, Gotland’s development trajectory is unique in Sweden. It is the smallest region in the country in population size and economic base, and it is located the furthest from the...

We examine impacts of market integration on the development of American manufacturing, as railroads expanded through the latter half of the 19th century. Using new county-by-industry data from the Census of Manufactures, we estimate substantial impacts on manufacturing productivity from relative...

How much of the spatial distribution of economic activity today is determined by history rather than by geographic fundamentals? And if history matters for the distribution, does it also affect overall efficiency? This paper develops a tractable theoretical and empirical framework that aims to...

This book traces regional income inequality in Spain during the transition from a pre-industrial society to a modern economy, using the Spanish case to shed further light on the challenges that emerging economies are facing today. Regional inequality is currently one of the most pressing...

1. Introduction -- 2. Spatial Disparities and Poverty: The Case of Three Provinces in the Philippines -- 3. Decomposing Poverty Change in India: Within- and Between-Group Effects Across Regions, 2004-05 and 2009-10 -- 4.Pathways Out of Rural Poverty and the Role of Agriculture in Four...

Welfare rise, spatial mobility, and global information and communication channels (in particular, social media) have prompted the emergence of a specific booming and rapidly growing mobility industry all over the world, namely tourism. The tourist sector (including recreation and leisure...

This book explains the relationships between equality and efficiency, as well as between government and market, in urban-rural and regional development by providing theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence. Urban-rural development in China is understood from a regional perspective, while...

This volume focuses on frontiers in regional research and identifies trends and future developments in the areas of innovation, regional growth and migration. It also addresses topics such as mobility, regional forecasting, and regional policy, and includes expert contributions on disasters,...