In this paper, we develop an economic geography model in which firms sell product varieties with heterogeneous demands. We show that firms that sell products with higher demand choose to establish their plants in larger countries, which provide better access to the most frequently demanded and...

This paper studies how firm heterogeneity in terms of productivity affects the balance between agglomeration and dispersion forces in the presence of pecuniary externalities through a selection model of monopolistic competition with endogenous markups. It shows that firm heterogeneity matters....

We provide empirical evidence of the dynamics of city size distribution for the whole of the twentieth century in U.S. cities and metropolitan areas. We focus our analysis on the new cities that were created during this period. The main contribution of the paper is the parametric and...

In this paper I estimate the spatial diffusion of housing prices across U.S. states over a period from 1975 to 2011, showing how long and to what magnitude state-level housing prices are affected by a price shock emanating from surrounding states. I capture the spatial diffusion of regional...

Governments are widely perceived as competing for capital by choosing parameters in a multi-dimensional policy space. We consider the choice of a business tax rate as well as a productive public input by local governments and estimate a model of strategic interaction in both policy instruments....

Many local public goods are allocated by federal governments using fixed regional shares: every region is entitled a fixed share of the total budget for a particular type of public good. This paper explores two characteristics of this type of allocation. First, it shows that this type of...

This paper studies the political economy of urban traffic policy. A city council and a regional government (representing city and suburbs) decide respectively on parking fees and a road toll. Both charges are below the optimum when median voters in city and suburbs prefer cars to public...

In a multi-country model with mobile capital and global pollution this paper analyzes self-enforcing environmental agreements (IEAs) when the coalition formed by the signatory countries plays Nash. In accordance with a previous environmental literature we show that there exists a unique...

We examine whether state government responses to rising Medicaid costs cause reduced low income assistance, overall state budget cuts, or higher taxes. We segment Medicaid recipient groups into families, the disabled, and the elderly. Using GMM estimation, we instrument for endogenous program...

This paper studies comprehensive national panel data of local option sales taxes at the monthly frequency. I calculate state-by-month population weighted averages and standard deviations of local sales tax rates. I document ten stylized facts concerning the time series patterns and spatial...