Explaining Spatial Variations in Productivity
There is a large and extensive literature examining the strength of agglomeration economies and, more generally, the determinants of spatial variations in productivity for developed countries. However, the corresponding literature for developing countries is comparatively scant. This paper contributes to filling this knowledge gap by providing estimates for city productivity premiums and different sources of agglomeration effects for 16 countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region. While two of the countries in our sample -- Brazil and Colombia -- have been considered by the literature, the remaining 14 countries have not been previously analyzed. The paper presents estimates for the region as well as comparable estimates for each country using a harmonized data set with characteristics of individual workers and features of the cities in which the workers live. In addition to examining the strength of agglomeration economies, the roles of human capital externalities and market access in explaining subnational productivity variations are assessed. The paper finds that citywide human capital externalities appear much stronger than agglomeration economies in explaining productivity variation in all the considered countries. There is considerable heterogeneity in the estimated strength of human capital externalities across countries, which could be a reflection of country differences in educational quality.
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018-08
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| Subjects: | AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES, MARKET ACCESS, DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, SUBSIDIES, DIVERSIFICATION, HUMAN CAPITAL, PRODUCTIVITY, CITY PRODUCTIVITY, GEOSPATIAL ECONOMICS, EXTERNALITIES, EDUCATION QUALITY, LABOR SKILLS, |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/819661534785390193/Explaining-spatial-variations-in-productivity-evidence-from-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean https://hdl.handle.net/10986/30287 |
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| Summary: | There is a large and extensive
literature examining the strength of agglomeration economies
and, more generally, the determinants of spatial variations
in productivity for developed countries. However, the
corresponding literature for developing countries is
comparatively scant. This paper contributes to filling this
knowledge gap by providing estimates for city productivity
premiums and different sources of agglomeration effects for
16 countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region.
While two of the countries in our sample -- Brazil and
Colombia -- have been considered by the literature, the
remaining 14 countries have not been previously analyzed.
The paper presents estimates for the region as well as
comparable estimates for each country using a harmonized
data set with characteristics of individual workers and
features of the cities in which the workers live. In
addition to examining the strength of agglomeration
economies, the roles of human capital externalities and
market access in explaining subnational productivity
variations are assessed. The paper finds that citywide human
capital externalities appear much stronger than
agglomeration economies in explaining productivity variation
in all the considered countries. There is considerable
heterogeneity in the estimated strength of human capital
externalities across countries, which could be a reflection
of country differences in educational quality. |
|---|