This paper studies the effect of the Spanish Reconquest, a military campaign that aimed to expel the Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula, on the population of its most important cities. The almost four centuries of Reconquest offer a "quasi-natural" experiment to study the persistence of...

This paper aims to study the effect of a major historical event on the Spanish city size distribution, the Spanish Reconquista. This was a long military campaign that aimed to expel Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. The process started in the early 1200s and ended around 1500, when the entire...

In this paper we use data on Spanish cities between 2006 and 2015 to study the Spanish urban system applying the model in Desmet and Rossi-Hansberg (2013). We decompose the determinants of the Spanish city size distribution into three main components: efficiency, amenities, and frictions. In the...

In this paper we use data on Spanish cities between 2006 and 2015 to study the Spanish urban system applying the model in Desmet and Rossi-Hansberg (2013). We decompose the determinants of the Spanish city size distribution into three main components: efficiency, amenities, and frictions. In the...

Tentative empirical evidence suggests that the agglomeration of talent contributes to regional development. However, given that talented people are not evenly distributed across regions, this paper seeks to determine how the concentration of talent affects patterns of regional development. Here,...

Spain’s transport infrastructure policy has become a paradigmatic case of oversupply and of mismatch with demand. The massive expansion of the country’s transport infrastructure over the last decade has not been a response to demand bottlenecks or previously identified needs. For this...

Spain’s transport infrastructure policy has become a paradigmatic case of oversupply and of mismatch with demand. The massive expansion of the country’s transport infrastructure over the last decade has not been a response to demand bottlenecks or previously identified needs. For this...