Recent literature suggests that historical accidents can trap economies in inefficient equilibria. In a prototype model in the literature, there are two locations, the productive South and the unproductive North. By accident of history, the industry starts in the North. Because of agglomeration...

In this chapter we discuss the data sources and methods available for studying the spatial distribution of economic activity in North America. We document facts about the specialization of states and regions, as well as locations differentiated by their degree of urbanization. We also report...