Papers Containing Keywords(s): 'geographic'
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Todd Gardner - 3
Viewing papers 21 through 28 of 28
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Working PaperThe Spatial Extent of Agglomeration Economies: Evidence from Three U.S. Manufacturing Industries
January 2012
Working Paper Number:
CES-12-01
The spatial extent of localized agglomeration economies constitutes one of the central current questions in regional science. It is crucial for understanding firm location decisions and for assessing the influence of proximity in shaping spatial patterns of economic activity, yet clear-cut answers are difficult to come by. Theoretical work often fails to define or specify the spatial dimension of agglomeration phenomena. Existing empirical evidence is far from consistent. Most sources of data on economic performance do not supply micro-level information containing usable geographic locations. This paper provides evidence of the distances across which distinct sources of agglomeration economies generate benefits for plants belonging to three manufacturing industries in the United States. Confidential data from the Longitudinal Research Database of the United States Census Bureau are used to estimate cross-sectional production function systems at the establishment level for three contrasting industries in three different years. Along with relevant establishment, industry, and regional characteristics, the production functions include variables that indicate the local availability of potential labor and supply pools and knowledge spillovers. Information on individual plant locations at the county scale permits spatial differentiation of the agglomeration variables within geographic regions. Multiple distance decay profiles are investigated in order to explore how modifying the operationalization of proximity affects indicated patterns of agglomeration externalities and interfirm interactions. The results imply that industry characteristics are at least as important as the type of externality mechanism in determining the spatial pattern of agglomeration benefits. The research methods borrow from earlier work by the author that examines the relationships between regional industrial structure and manufacturing production.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperMigration Decisions in Arctic Alaska: Empirical Evidence of the Stepping Stones Hypothesis
December 2010
Working Paper Number:
CES-10-41
This paper explores hypotheses of hierarchical migration using data from the Alaskan Arctic. We focus on migration of I'upiat people, who are indigenous to the region, and explore the role of income, harvests of subsistence resources, and other place characteristics in migration decisions. To test related hypotheses we use confidential micro-data from the US Census Bureau's 2000 Decennial Census of Population and Income. Using predicted earnings and subsistence along with place invariant characteristics we generate migration probabilities using a mixed multinomial and conditional logit model. Our results support stepwise migration patterns, both up and down an urban and rural hierarchy. At the same time, we also identify differences between men and women, and we find mixed effects of place amenities and predicted earnings.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperThe Impact of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma on Business Establishments: A GIS Approach
August 2006
Working Paper Number:
CES-06-23
We use Geographic Information System tools to develop estimates of the economic impact of disaster events such as Hurricane Katrina. Our methodology relies on mapping establishments from the Census Bureau's Business Register into damage zones defined by remote sensing information provided by FEMA. The identification of damaged establishments by precisely locating them on a map provides a far more accurate characterization of affected businesses than those typically reported from readily available county level data. The need for prompt estimates is critical since they are more valuable the sooner they are released after a catastrophic event. Our methodology is based on pre-storm data. Therefore, estimates can be made available very quickly to inform the public as well as policy makers. Robustness tests using data from after the storms indicate our GIS estimates, while much smaller than those based on publicly available county-level data, still overstate actual observed losses. We discuss ways to refine and augment the GIS approach to provide even more accurate estimates of the impact of disasters on businesses.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperSmart Cafe Cities: Testing Human Capital Externalities in the Boston Metropolitan Area
October 2005
Working Paper Number:
CES-05-24
Existing studies have explored either only one or two of the mechanisms that human capital externalities percolate at only macrogeographic levels. This paper uses the 1990 Massachusetts Census data and tests four mechanisms at the microgeographic levels in the Boston metropolitan area labor market. We propose that individual workers can learn from their occupational and industrial peers in the same local labor market through four channels: depth of human capital stock, Marshallian labor market externalities, Jacobs labor market externalities, and thickness of the local labor market. We find that all types of human capital externalities are significant across Census blocks. Different types of externalities attenuate at different speeds over distances. For example, the effect of human capital depth decays rapidly beyond three miles away from block centroid. We conclude that knowledge spillovers are very localized within microgeographic scope in cities that we call Smart Caf' Cities.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperLocation, Location, Location: The 3L Approach to House Price Determination
May 2004
Working Paper Number:
CES-04-06
The immobility of houses means that their location affects their values. This explains the common belief that three things determine the price of a house: location, location, and location. We use this notion to develop the 3L Approach to house price determination. That is, prices are determined by the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), town, and street where the house is located. This study creates a unique data set based on data from the American Housing Survey (AHS) consisting of small 'clusters' of housing units with information on their housing characteristics and resident characteristics that is merged with census tract-level attributes. We use this data to verify the 3L Approach: we find that all three levels of location are significant when estimating the house price hedonic equation. This indicates that individuals care about their local neighborhood, i.e. the general upkeep of their street and possibly their neighbors' characteristics (cluster variables), a broader area such as the school district and/or the town (tract variables) that account for school quality and crime rates, and the particular amenities found in their MSA.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperEstablishment and Employment Dynamics in Appalachia: Evidence from the Longitudinal Business Database
December 2003
Working Paper Number:
CES-03-19
One indicator of the general economic health of a region is the rate at which new jobs are created. The newly developed Longitudinal Business Database has been used in this paper to develop a detailed portrait of establishment formation and attrition and job creation and destruction in the Appalachian Region. The foremost finding is that the pace of reallocation in Appalachia is lower than it is for the U.S.. This is evident in Appalachia's relatively lower establishment birth and death rates and job creation and destruction rates. For example, on average over the study time period, the U.S. job creation rate exceeds 45 percent, while the Appalachian job creation rate is 43 percent. Similarly, the U.S. job destruction rate is about 35 percent, while the Appalachian job destruction rate is about 33 percent. Even when controlling for other differences, job creation rates are 1.2 percentage points lower and job destruction rates are 3.4 percentage points lower in Appalachia relative to the rest of the U.S. Another indicator of the general economic health of a region is the quality of its jobs. The quality of jobs is measured in this paper by the average wage paid at the establishment. Here too there is cause for concern about the economic health of Appalachia. The analysis shows that wages are about 10 percent lower in Appalachia than in the U.S. even when controlling for differences in other characteristics across the two areas. This wage discrepancy has not narrowed over the time of the study. Moreover, new establishments have a similar wage gap. Employees at new establishments earn wages 10 percent less than at new establishments in the rest of the U.S.View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperSynthetic Data and Confidentiality Protection
September 2003
Working Paper Number:
tp-2003-10
View Full Paper PDF
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Working PaperThe Role of Cities: Evidence From the Placement of Sales Offices
January 2002
Working Paper Number:
CES-02-02
What is the force of attraction of cities? Leading explanations include the advantages of a con-centrated market and knowledge spillovers. This paper develops a model of firm location decisions in which it is possible to distinguish the importance of the concentrated-market motive from other motives, including knowledge spillovers. A key aspect of the model is that it allows for the firm to choose multiple locations. The theory is applied to study the placement of manufacturing sales offices. The implications of the concentrated-market motive are found to be a salient feature of U.S. Census micro data. The structural parameters of the model are estimated. The concentrated-market motive is found to account for approximately half of the concentration of sales offices in large cities.View Full Paper PDF
