We analyze the impact of local banking infrastructure on manufacturing growth in Mexican municipalities and US counties. We find that aggregate local banking deposits have a positive and significant impact on technological change, and on the use of human capital at the municipal or county level...

Theory is divided on whether falling transport costs lead to more or less spatial concentration of economic activity. Using US county-level data we find that aggregate employment became more concentrated between 1972-92. This aggregate picture hides important differences between sectors though....

Conventional wisdom suggests that small businesses are innovative engines of Schumpetarian growth. However, as small businesses, they are likely to face credit rationing in financial markets. If true then policies that promote lending to small businesses may yield substantial economy-wide...

This Paper examines the spatial distribution of jobs across US counties and investigates whether sectoral employment is becoming more or less concentrated. The existing literature has found deconcentration (convergence) of employment across urban areas. Cities only cover a small part of the US...

This paper discusses the effects of small banks on local economic growth. We first theoretically show that small banks operating at a regional level can spur local economic growth; the effect is stronger in regions with lower initial endowments. We then test the model predictions using a sample...

Maximum entropy econometrics is well suited to estimate models with very few observations or to deal with multicollinearity. These are common problems in the estimation of a regional production function. In this paper, maximum entropy is used to analyze two issues that, so far, have not been...

In this paper, we discuss the possible effects of Poland's accession to the European Union (EU) on the economic development of the Polish eastern border regions. In accordance with the theoretical previsions, economic integration may have a great impact on the spatial allocation of economic...

This paper investigates how the services of public capital affect the different sectors of private economy in Italy. For this purpose, we use a trans-logarithmic cost function which includes infrastructure’s services as a quasi-fixed free input. This approach allows to measure the effects of...

Drawing on a new and comprehensive measure of logistics quality, our gravity model suggests logistics in the exporting and partner-country can have an important impact on bilateral exports.  A one standard deviation improvement in the exporter's logistics quality, which for example would...

In generating fast economic growth, China is also generating growing concern about its environmental record. Using 2000-2009 data, we find that, while spending on environmental infrastructure has visible positive environmental impact, city spending is strongly tilted towards transportation...