Agglomeration and Economic Growth: Some Puzzles

Knowledge spillovers and technical externalities play a fundamental role in basically all endogenous growth models. In a context of increasing returns to scale and transportation costs it seems reasonable to assume that regional agglomeration of production and R&D activities is linked to aggregate growth. This work is an empirical investigation of the predictions provided by some theoretical studies according to which agglomeration increases with growth and growth increases with agglomeration (Martin and Ottaviano, 2001, Baldwin and Forslid, 2000 and Fujita and Thisse, 2001). The behaviour of six European countries over twelve years (from 1984 to 1995) is analysed using panel data techniques. In particular, a "traditional" growth equation à la Barro, in which an index of regional agglomeration of industrial activities is added to the "typical" regressors, is estimated. Surprisingly, instead of concentration in a few areas, as theory predicts, equal dispersion of economic activities across regions sems to be good for national aggregate growth. Besides, there is also some evidence that regional dispersion of sectors with a high technological content is growth enhancing.International Economics; Trade; Regional Agglomeration; Growth

Endogenous Regional Policy in a Model of Agglomeration

It is a widely observed fact that in many European countries, regions of low population density get subsidies that are not justified by their size. This paper throws some light on the effect of this phenomena on location of manufacturing activities. Considering a simple two-region economic geography model enriched to allow for endogenously determined regional policy, we find that, once the political economics of regional policy is explicitly considered, region size has an ambiguous effect in determining the equilibrium regional subsidy, while it still plays a key role in the determination of the equilibrium share of industrial activities. In particular the final allocation of firms will depend both on the relative economic strength of the two regions, as predicted by more orthodox economic geography models, and by their relative political weight.Agglomeration; Home Market Effect; Regional Aids; Political Economy; Swing Voter

The Effect of Parental Background on Track Choices and Wages

Intergenerational links are often investigated by computing educational attainment correlations between parents and children, even though parental background may influence outcomes at earlier stages of the educational path. Because of early school track selection and widespread vocational training, this effect may be quite important in the Swiss context. We first investigate the importance of parental background variables for upper secondary educational attainment over the last 6 decades. We next estimate the impact of parental background on earnings. This effect is shown to depend on the magnitude of intergenerational correlations, the returns to qualifications and the availability of further training for those having ended up in a low educational track at age 15. The impact of tracking at age 15 on wage inequality is found to be relatively small in Switzerland, comparing to results for Germany. Relatively low returns from academic education best explain this pattern.intergenerational mobility; upper secondary education; returns to education