Explaining Spatial Variations in Productivity : Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean

Quintero, Luis E. ; Roberts, Mark

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES;    MARKET ACCESS;    DEVELOPING ECONOMIES;    SUBSIDIES;    DIVERSIFICATION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8560
RP-ID  :  WPS8560

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

There is a large and extensiveliterature examining the strength of agglomeration economiesand, more generally, the determinants of spatial variationsin productivity for developed countries. However, thecorresponding literature for developing countries iscomparatively scant. This paper contributes to filling thisknowledge gap by providing estimates for city productivitypremiums and different sources of agglomeration effects for16 countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region.While two of the countries in our sample -- Brazil andColombia -- have been considered by the literature, theremaining 14 countries have not been previously analyzed.The paper presents estimates for the region as well ascomparable estimates for each country using a harmonizeddata set with characteristics of individual workers andfeatures of the cities in which the workers live. Inaddition to examining the strength of agglomerationeconomies, the roles of human capital externalities andmarket access in explaining subnational productivityvariations are assessed. The paper finds that citywide humancapital externalities appear much stronger thanagglomeration economies in explaining productivity variationin all the considered countries.There is considerableheterogeneity in the estimated strength of human capitalexternalities across countries, which could be a reflectionof country differences in educational quality.