Looking for multiple equilibria when geography matters: German city growth and the WWII shock

Bosker, Erik Maarten; Brakman, Steven; Garretsen, Harry; Schramm, Marc

doi:10.1016/j.jue.2006.07.001

Cited by 113 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Furthermore, it can contribute to the understanding of the persistent differences in regional economic development (Becker et al 2010, Maseland 2012, Tabellini 2010or Waidlein 2011. Finally, this study contributes to a growing literature reporting on the persistence and pathdependent nature of spatial equilibria (e.g., in industry concentration) and city growth processes (Bosker et al 2007, Bleakly and Lin 2012, Davis and Weinstein 2002, Davis and Weinstein 2008, Miguel and Roland 2011and Redding et al 2011. To establish a link between medieval trade, agglomeration and contemporary performance we link the typical characteristics of medieval trade and cities to the determinants of agglomeration suggested by New Economic Geography (NEG) and agglomeration economics (e.g., Krugman 1991, Glaeser et al 1992.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…This is a typical characteristic of processes caused by increasing returns or positive feedback (David 2007). Several studies (e.g., Bosker et al 2007and Davis and Weinstein 2002 show that city growth (and therefore also city size) is characterized by a long-run persistence that is immune even to such shocks as the Second World War.…”

Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Does medieval trade still matter? Historical trade centers, agglomeration and contemporary economic development

Wahl

2016

Regional Science and Urban Economics

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractThis study empirically establishes a link between medieval trade, agglomeration and contemporary regional development in ten European countries. It documents a statistically and economically significant positive relationship between prominent involvement in medieval trade and commercial activities and regional economic development today. Further empirical analyses show that medieval trade positively influenced city development both during the medieval period and in the long run; they also reveal a robust connection between medieval city growth and contemporary regional agglomeration and industry concentration. A mediation analysis indicates that a long-lasting effect of medieval trade on contemporary regional development is indeed transmitted via its effect on agglomeration and industry concentration. This research thus highlights the long-run importance of medieval trade in shaping the development of cities as well as the contemporary spatial distribution of economic activity throughout Europe. The path-dependent regional development processes caused by medieval commercial activities help explain the observed persistent regional development differences across the European countries considered.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Theory and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does medieval trade still matter? Historical trade centers, agglomeration and contemporary economic development

Wahl

2016

Regional Science and Urban Economics

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“…A series of papers, initially inspired by Davis and Weinstein (2002), investigated the longterm impact of large-scale war-related destruction using geographically-detailed bombing data from World War II Japan (Davis and Weinstein, 2008), the American-Vietnam War (Miguel and Roland, 2011), and World War II Germany (Bosker et al, 2007). The first two papers failed to find any long term impact of the bombing campaigns on the distribution of economic activity;…”

Section: Economic Consequences Of Large Disastersmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Happened to Kobe? A Reassessment of the Impact of the 1995 Earthquake in Japan

Dupont

Noy

2015

Economic Development and Cultural Change

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The received wisdom is that the devastation wrought by the 1995 Kobe earthquake did not have any long-term impact on the Japanese economy, nor much impact on Kobe itself. We re-evaluate the evidence using a new methodology, synthetic control, and find a persistent and still continuing adverse impact of the quake on the economy of Kobe more than 15 years after the event. Using the methodology developed by Abadie et al. (2010), we construct counter-factual dynamics for the Kobe economy. We identify a decline in per capita GDP that is attributable to the quake and is persistent, long-term, and clearly observable even 13 years after the quake. GDP per capita for 2008 was 400,000 yen per person lower (12% decrease) than it would have been had the earthquake not occurred. Importantly, this adverse long-term impact is identified in a wealthy region of a developed country, and with the backing of a deeppocketed fiscal authority. JEL: O11, Q54, Q56, R11

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“…For one thing, these studies include far more institutional, case-specific and historical details than the basic NEG model as depicted by Figure 1. To take the case of the effect of allied bombing of German cities in World War II on their post-war development (see Brakman et al, 2004;Bosker et al, 2007b), information on the EastÁWest postwar division of the country, on government (rebuilding) policies, the impact of other shocks to city-sizes, and the flow of post-war refugees, all enter the equation. In Section 6 we will argue that in dealing with the role of geography and history, one way forward for economic geography at large, including NEG, is to pay more attention to the actual history of economic landscapes.…”

Section: The Need To Reconsider Geography and History Within Negmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking (New) Economic Geography Models: Taking Geography and History More Seriously

Garretsen¹,

Martin

2010

Spatial Economic Analysis

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102

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Two aspects of New Economic Geography models are often singled out for criticism, especially by geographers: the treatment of geography, typically as a pre-given, fixed and highly idealized abstract geometric space; and the treatment of history, typically as 'logical' time (the movement to equilibrium in a model's solution space) rather than real history. In this paper we examine the basis for these criticisms, and explore how far and in what ways NEG models might be made more credible with respect to their representation of geography and history, and particularly whether and to what extent the work of geographers themselves provides some insights in this regard. We argue that the conceptualization of space and time is in fact a challenge for both NEG theorists and economic geographers, and that, notwithstanding their ontological and epistemological differences, both groups would benefit from an interchange of ideas on this front.Réinventer les (nouveaux) modèles de géographie économique: comment prendre la géographie et l'histoire plus au sérieux RÉSUMÉ Deux aspects particuliers des mode`les de la nouvelle ge´ographie e´conomique sont souvent l'objet de critiques, notamment de la part des ge´ographes, a`savoir: le traitement de la ge´ographie, ge´ne´ralement comme un espace ge´ome´trique abstrait pre´de´termine´, fixe et extrêmement ide´alise´, et le traitement de l'histoire, ge´ne´ralement comme un cre´neau 'logique' (un mouvement vers l'e´quilibre dans un espace a`solution du modèle) et non pas comme l'histoire re´elle. Dans la pre´sente communication, nous nous penchons sur le fondement de ces critiques, et nous examinons dans quelle mesure les modèles de la NEG pourraient devenir plus plausibles sur le plan de la façon dont ils repre´sentent la ge´ographie et l'histoire, notamment si le travail des ge´ographes apporte de nouveaux e´le´ments sur cette question, et dans quelle mesure. Nous soutenons que la conceptualisation de l'espace et du temps constitue, en fait, un de´fi tant pour les the´oriciens de la NEG que pour les ge´ographes e´conomiques, et qu'au-delà de leurs diffe´rences ontologiques et e´piste´mologiques, un e´change d'ide´es sur ce sujet serait be´ne´fique pour ces deux groupes. Spatial Economic Analysis, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 2010Reconsideració n de modelos de (Nueva) Geografía Econó mica: Tomando más en serio la geografía y la historia EXTRACTO A menudo, existen dos aspectos particulares de los modelos de Nueva Geografía Econo´mica que reciben críticas, especialmente por parte de los geo´grafos: el tratamiento de la geografía, típicamente como un espacio geome´trico abstracto altamente idealizado, fijo y predeterminado; y, el tratamiento de la historia, típicamente como un tiempo 'lo´gico' (el movimiento hacia el equilibrio en el espacio de solucio´n de un modelo), en lugar de como historia real. En este estudio examinamos la base de estas críticas y exploramos hasta que´punto y de que´formas, los modelos NEG podrían hacerse ma´s creíbles con respecto a su representacio´n de la geogr...

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Looking for multiple equilibria when geography matters: German city growth and the WWII shock

Cited by 113 publications

References 12 publications

Does medieval trade still matter? Historical trade centers, agglomeration and contemporary economic development

Does medieval trade still matter? Historical trade centers, agglomeration and contemporary economic development

What Happened to Kobe? A Reassessment of the Impact of the 1995 Earthquake in Japan

Rethinking (New) Economic Geography Models: Taking Geography and History More Seriously

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