In contrast to what several papers have argued recently, we show that firm heterogeneity fosters agglomeration of economic activity. If firms are more similar with respect to their total factor productivity, each company faces a lower propensity to export. This renders the home market more...

We develop a heterogeneous-firms model with trade in goods, labor mobility and credit constraints due to moral hazard. Mitigating financial frictions reduces the incentive of high-skilled workers to migrate to one region such that an unequal distribution of industrial activity becomes less...

Using a natural experiment from Germany, we show that temporary placebased subsidies generate persistent effects on economic density. We identify employment and capital formation as main channels for higher income per square kilometer. As the spatial regression discontinuity design allows us to...

We build a heterogeneous-firms model with firm-specific wages and credit frictions to study the role of financial development for inequality in the global economy. If there are many small firms, better access to external funds reduces wage inequality and unemployment. In contrast, if there are...

Die Reduzierung regionaler Ungleichheiten ist in Deutschland ein zentrales Anliegen der Politik. Dabei erhoffen sich Politiker oft, dass temporäre Förderung einen sich selbst tragenden Entwicklungsprozess in Gang setzt. Der Umfang regionaler Umverteilung ist sowohl auf nationaler wie...