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Division of Labor and the Rise of Cities: Evidence from U.S. Industrialization, 1850-1880

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  • Sukkoo Kim
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    Abstract

    Industrial revolution in the United States first took hold in rural New England as factories arose and grew in a handful of industries such as textiles and shoes. However, as factory scale economies rose and factory production techniques were adopted by an ever growing number of industries, industrialization became concentrated in cities throughout the Northeastern region which came to be known as the manufacturing belt. While it is extremely difficult to rule out other types of agglomeration economies such as spillovers, this paper suggests that these geographic developments associated with industrial revolution in the U.S. are most consistent with explanations based on division of labor, job search and matching costs.

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    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12246.

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    Date of creation: May 2006
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    Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12246

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    28. repec:bla:restud:v:73:y:2006:i:2:p:381-412 is not listed on IDEAS
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    Cited by:
    1. Dora Costa, 2011. "Leaders: Privilege, Sacrifice, Opportunity and Personnel Economics in the American Civil War," NBER Working Papers 17382, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Edward L. Glaeser & Giacomo Ponzetto & Kristina Tobio, 2010. "The Varieties of Regional Change," Working Papers 472, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.

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