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Identifying Agglomeration Shadows: Long-run Evidence from Ancient Ports

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  • Hornbeck, Richard
  • Michaels, Guy
  • Rauch, Ferdinand

Abstract

We examine "agglomeration shadows" that emerge around large cities, which discourage some economic activities in nearby areas. Identifying agglomeration shadows is complicated, however, by endogenous city formation and "wave interference" that we show in simulations. We use the locations of ancient ports near the Mediterranean, which seeded modern cities, to estimate agglomeration shadows cast on nearby areas. We find that empirically, as in the simulations, detectable agglomeration shadows emerge for large cities around ancient ports. These patterns extend to modern city locations more generally, and illustrate how encouraging growth in particular places can discourage growth of nearby areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Hornbeck, Richard & Michaels, Guy & Rauch, Ferdinand, 2024. "Identifying Agglomeration Shadows: Long-run Evidence from Ancient Ports," Working Papers 0752, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:awi:wpaper:0752
    Note: This paper is part of http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/view/schriftenreihen/sr-3.html
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jan David Bakker & Stephan Maurer & Jörn-Steffen Pischke & Ferdinand Rauch, 2021. "Of Mice and Merchants: Connectedness and the Location of Economic Activity in the Iron Age," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(4), pages 652-665, October.
    2. Nathan Nunn & Diego Puga, 2012. "Ruggedness: The Blessing of Bad Geography in Africa," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(1), pages 20-36, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Cui, Wenyue, 2025. "Shadow and spillover: The influence of neighboring innovative cities on regional innovation growth," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Chun Chee Kok & Gedeon J. Lim, 2024. "Ethnic Proximity and Politics: Evidence from Colonial Resettlement in Malaysia," SoDa Laboratories Working Paper Series 2024-06, Monash University, SoDa Laboratories.
    3. Akihiro Otsuka, 2024. "Effects of regional network economies on industrial productivity in Japan: dynamic total factor productivity function approach," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 1111-1134, December.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • N9 - Economic History - - Regional and Urban History

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