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The Costs of Remoteness: Evidence from German Division and Reunification

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Author Info
Stephen J. Redding
Daniel M. Sturm

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Abstract

This paper exploits the division of Germany after the Second World War and the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990 as a natural experiment to provide evidence for the importance of market access for economic development. In line with a standard new economic geography model, we find that, following division, cities in West Germany close to the East-West German border experienced a substantial decline in population growth relative to other West German cities. We show that the model can account for the quantitative magnitude of our findings and provide additional evidence against alternative possible explanations. (JEL F15, N94, R12, R23)

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Article provided by American Economic Association in its journal American Economic Review.

Volume (Year): 98 (2008)
Issue (Month): 5 (December)
Pages: 1766-97
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Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:98:y:2008:i:5:p:1766-97

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  5. Leslie Lipschitz & Donogh McDonald, 1990. "German Unification: Economic Issues," IMF Occasional Papers 75, International Monetary Fund.
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  7. Hanson, Gordon H, 1996. "Localization Economies, Vertical Organization, and Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(5), pages 1266-78, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. John Luke Gallup & Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew D. Mellinger, 1998. "Geography and Economic Development," NBER Working Papers 6849, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. David E. Bloom & Jeffrey D. Sachs, 1998. "Geography, Demography, and Economic Growth in Africa," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 29(1998-2), pages 207-296. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Duncan Black & Vernon Henderson, 1999. "A Theory of Urban Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(2), pages 252-284, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Redding, Stephen & Venables, Anthony J., 2004. "Economic geography and international inequality," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 53-82, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Baldwin, Richard E., 2001. "Core-periphery model with forward-looking expectations," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 21-49, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2004. "The empirics of agglomeration and trade," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 59, pages 2609-2669 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  18. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 2002. "Germany's Economic Unification: An Assessment after Ten Years," Review of International Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 10(1), pages 113-28, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  19. Masahisa Fujita & Paul Krugman & Anthony J. Venables, 2001. "The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262561476.
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  21. Xavier Gabaix, 1999. "Zipf'S Law For Cities: An Explanation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 114(3), pages 739-767, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Dani Rodrik & Arvind Subramanian & Francesco Trebbi, 2004. "Institutions Rule: The Primacy of Institutions Over Geography and Integration in Economic Development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 131-165, 06. [Downloadable!]
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  23. H. Hanson, Gordon, 2005. "Market potential, increasing returns and geographic concentration," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 1-24, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Wolf, Nikolaus, 2008. "Was Germany ever united? Evidence from Intra- and International Trade 1885 – 1933," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 871, University of Warwick, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Gabriel Ahlfeldt, 2007. "If Alonso Was Right: Accessibility as Determinant for Attractiveness of Urban Location," Working Papers 012, Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg. [Downloadable!]
  3. Bernd Süßmuth & Malte Heyne & Wolfgang Maennig, 2009. "Induced Civic Pride and Integration," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  4. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Wendlan, Nicolai, 2008. "Spatial Determinants of CBD Emergence: A Micro-level Case Study on Berlin∗," MPRA Paper 11572, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  5. Stephen Redding, 2009. "The Empirics of New Economic Geography," CEP Discussion Papers dp0925, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Toshihiro Okubo & Pierre M. Picard & Jacques-François Thisse, 2008. "The spatial selection of heterogeneous firms," Discussion Paper Series 229, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Redding, Stephen J & Sturm, Daniel M & Wolf, Nikolaus, 2007. "History and Industry Location: Evidence from German Airports," CEPR Discussion Papers 6345, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Stephen Redding, 2009. "Economic Geography: A Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature," CEP Discussion Papers dp0904, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Candau, Fabien, 2006. "The Spatial and Public Economics of Regions, a Theoretical and Empirical Survey," MPRA Paper 1153, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  10. Maarten Bosker & Steven Brakman & Harry Garretsen & Marc Schramm, 2006. "A Century of Shocks: The Evolution of the German City Size Distribution 1925 – 1999," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln & Rima Izem, 2007. "Explaining the Low Labor Productivity in East Germany. A Spatial Analysis," Kiel Working Papers 1307, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
  12. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M., 2009. "The train has left the station: Do markets value intra-city access to inter-city rail connections?," MPRA Paper 13900, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  13. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Laurent Gobillon & Sébastien Roux, 2007. "Estimating Agglomeration Economies with History, Geology, and Worker Effects," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Agglomeration National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Wolfgang Maennig, 2009. "Impact of Non-Smoking Ordinances on Hospitality Revenues: The Case of Germany," Working Papers 026, Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg. [Downloadable!]
  15. Claudia M. Buch & Farid Toubal, 2007. "Openness and Growth: The Long Shadow of the Berlin Wall," IAW Discussion Papers 31, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW). [Downloadable!]
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  16. Maarten Bosker & Steven Brakman & Harry Garretsen & Marc Schramm, 2005. "Looking for Multiple Equilibria when Geography Matters: German City Growth and the WWII Shock," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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