We investigate the impact of manufacturing employment growth on the non-tradable sector for prefecture-level cities in China. Using the 2000 and 2010 Censuses of Population, we apply the shift-share approach to isolate the exogenous change of employment growth in manufacturing. We find that...

This paper which is a sequence of previous works (Lemos e Diniz, 2000 and Diniz, 1993) attempts to analyze in an introductory and comparative way the aggregate competitiveness of the major Brazilian metropolitan areas. It is theoretically based on two fundamental concepts of urban economics:...

Using subnational historical data, this paper establishes the within country persistence of economic activity in the New World over the last half millennium, a period including the trauma of the European colonization, the decimation of the native populations, and the imposition of potentially...

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...