Technological Diversification of U.S. Cities during the Great Historical Crises

Mathieu Steijn, Pierre-Alexandre Balland, Ron Boschma () and David Rigby

No 1901, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: Regional resilience is high on the scientific and policy agenda. An essential feature of resilience is diversifying into new activities. But, little is known about whether major economic crises accelerate or decelerate regional diversification, and whether the impact differs between specialised and diverse regions. This paper offers systematic evidence on the effects of three of the largest crises in U.S. history (the Long Depression 1873-1879, the Great Depression 1929-1934, and the Oil Crisis 1973-1975) on the development of new technological capabilities within U.S. metropolitan areas. We find that crises reduce the pace of diversification in cities and that they narrow the scope of diversification to more closely related activities. We also find that more diverse cities outperform more specialised cities in diversifying during times of crisis but more diverse cities do not have a stronger focus on less related diversification during these unsettled times.

Keywords: Technological diversification; regional resilience; major historical crises; related diversification; U.S. cities; entry of technologies; patents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 O33 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-01, Revised 2019-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-his, nep-tid and nep-ure
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http://econ.geo.uu.nl/peeg/peeg1901.pdf Version January 2019 (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: Technological diversification of U.S. cities during the great historical crises (2023)
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