This paper advances the hypothesis that persistent inequality affects cultural traits and undermines social capital. We use blood donation data at the local level in Southern Spain to document that, indeed, persistent inequality – as measured by land inequality – negatively affects blood...

Jane Jacobs is best known as a writer about cities and as a vigorous critic of urban planning. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that she should be read as a writer on economic development who focuses on cities as the principal sites of development. The recently upsurge of interest in...

This is a survey and analysis - with commentary - of migration issues and the related development policies for the sending countries. "Migration and development" is considered an unsettled and unresolved area for good reason. The policy issues are surprisingly deep and run to basic issues such...

Does national market size matter for industrial structure? This has been suggested by theoretical work on "home market" effects, as in Krugman (1980,1995). In this paper, I show that what previously was regarded as an assumption of convenience - transport costs only for the differentiated goods...

Cities are among the best examples of complex systems. The adaptive components of a city, such as its people, firms, institutions, and physical structures, form intricate and often non-intuitive interdependencies with one another. These interdependencies can be quantified and represented as...

We study entrepreneurship and growth through the lens of U.S. cities. Initial entrepreneurship correlates strongly with urban employment growth, but endogeneity bedevils interpretation. Chinitz (1961) hypothesized that coal mines near cities led to specialization in industries, like steel, with...

A lack of affordable housing is a growing crisis for many communities in the US, particularly in urban neighborhoods with constrained housing markets. We discuss the housing imbalance and affordability crisis in the San Francisco Bay Area. Land use regulations are the biggest impediment in...

Does national market size matter for industrial structure? Round One (Krugman) answered in the affirmative: Home market effects matter. Round Two (Davis) refuted this, arguing that an assumption of convenience - transport costs only for the differentiated goods - conveniently obtained the...

Interest in analyzing the dynamics of the Great Recession among regional economists has largely focused on ‘regional resilience.’ This concept, while still not fully formed, considers the relationship between regional characteristics and the regional response to economic shocks, particularly...

This paper examines the impact of culture on industrial similarity during the trade liberalization process between 1998 and 2007. The identification strategy relies on the regional variation in exposure to trade and compares the industrial structures of pairs of adjacent counties that do or do...