This paper studies how the changing geographic distribution of skilled workers in the US affects theoretical models that use Gibrat's law to explain the size distribution of cities. In the empirical literature, a divergence hypothesis holds that college share increases faster in cities where...

The regional employment growth in Germany is characterized by huge disparities. Whereas institutional factors might explain the disparities of employment growth between nations, they can only account for a minor fraction of the regional employment growth. Instead the sectoral structure of...

This paper analyzes the effect of agglomeration economies on firms’ total factor productivity. We propose the use of a control function approach to overcome the econometric issue inherent to the two-stage approach commonly used in the literature. Estimations are conducted separately for four...

This paper analyzes the effect of agglomeration economies on firms' total factor productivity. We propose the use of a control function approach to overcome the econometric issue inherent to the two-stage approach commonly used in the literature. Estimations are conducted separately for four...

Following the model-based approach of Ellison and Glaeser (1997), we develop a framework to test for the link between concentration, spatial clustering and the size of plants. Concentration is an a-spatial concept of variability that can be measured with the standard locational Gini or the more...

The urban structures between the Member States of the European Union is very different for historical, geographical, economic reasons. However, the population is spread across geographic areas in a way that, although continuously changing, is not possible to define as random. Indeed, countries...

This paper analyzes the evolution of geographical concentration in the West German manufacturing, service, and knowledge-intensive sectors over a time period of 30 years. Drawing on detailed plant data of 187 industries from 1980 to 2010, we observe substantial concentration that is highest in...

This paper uses a comprehensive, official firm-level dataset for German manufacturing firms to investigate the location decision of new firm activity in the German regional economy, differentiated by firm structure. The rich regional dimension of this dataset is investigated for the first time...

I document novel stylized facts on learning and its relationship with population density, using Japanese survey data that provide distinctively rich first-hand information about the frequency, purpose, subject, and method of off-the-job learning. First, people learn more frequently in denser...