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Spatial development

Author

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  • Klaus Desmet

    (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and CEPR)

  • Esteban Rossi-Hansberg

    (Princeton University)

Abstract

We present a theory of spatial development. Manufacturing and services firms located in a continuous geographic area choose each period how much to innovate. Firms trade subject to transport costs and technology diffuses spatially across locations. The result is a spatial endogenous growth theory that can shed light on the link between the evolution of economic activity over time and space. We apply the model to study the evolution of the U.S. economy in the last few decades and find that the model can generate the reduction in the employment share in manufacturing, the increase in service productivity starting in the second part of the 1990s, the increase in the value and dispersion of land rents in the same period, as well as several other spatial and temporal patterns.

Suggested Citation

  • Klaus Desmet & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2009. "Spatial development," Working Papers 2009-18, Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) Ciencias Sociales, revised 28 May 2010.
    • Handle: RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2009-18
    Note: This paper is included in the IMDEA Social Sciences Working Paper Series through the PROCIUDAD-CM and the Bank of Spain Excellence Programmes
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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