Spatial Growth and Industry Age Articles uri icon

authors

  • DESMET, KLAUS
  • ROSSI HANSBERG, ESTEBAN ALEJANDRO

publication date

  • November 2009

start page

  • 2477

end page

  • 2502

issue

  • 6

volume

  • 144

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0022-0531

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1095-7235

abstract

  • Between 1970 and 2000 employment growth across U.S. counties exhibited very different patterns in manufacturing and services. Whereas manufacturing employment growth was negatively related to initial manufacturing employment across the entire distribution of counties, service employment growth was positively related to initial service employment for intermediate sized counties. This paper presents a theory to rationalize these facts. Local sectoral growth is driven by technological diffusion across space and depends on the age of the sector. The theory correctly predicts the relation between county employment growth and initial county employment in manufacturing at the turn of the 20th century.

keywords

  • spatial growth; industry age; technology diffusion; spillovers; distribution of economic activity; scale-dependent growth