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Agglomeration economies and labour productivity: evidence from longitudinal worker data for GB's travel-to-work areas

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  • Graham, Daniel J.
  • Melo, Patricia C.
Abstract
This paper analyzes the impact of agglomeration externalities on hourly earnings using longitudinal worker micro-level data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings over the period 2002- 2006. We find that the effect of agglomeration externalities on wages is sensitive to the estimator used. Controlling for nonzero correlation between workers’ unobservable skills and other covariates halves the size of the wage elasticity of agglomeration externalities. On the contrary, accounting for firms’ unobservable heterogeneity has only a weak contribution to the explanation of wage differentials. Another interesting result is that correcting for reverse causality between productivity and agglomeration does not appear to have a substantial impact on the magnitude of the parameter estimates. Our best estimate for the effect of labour market density (market potential) is 0.8% (5.8%). This means that doubling labour market’s employment density can raise hourly earnings by nearly 1%, while halving the distances to other markets produces an increase of hourly wages of nearly 3%. The last piece of evidence refers to the spatial attenuation of agglomeration externalities. We estimate that a 100,000 increase in the number of jobs within 5 kilometres raises hourly wages by approximately 1.19%; the effect falls sharply thereafter.

Suggested Citation

  • Graham, Daniel J. & Melo, Patricia C., 2009. "Agglomeration economies and labour productivity: evidence from longitudinal worker data for GB's travel-to-work areas," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 33268, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:33268
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    Cited by:

    1. Sabine D'Costa & Henry Overman, 2013. "The urban wage growth premium: evidence from British cities," ERSA conference papers ersa13p516, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Adelheid Holl, 2014. "Location, accessibility and firm-level productivity in Spain," Chapters, in: Ana Condeço-Melhorado & Aura Reggiani & Javier Gutiérrez (ed.), Accessibility and Spatial Interaction, chapter 10, pages 195-210, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Eduardo A. Haddad & Ana Maria Bonomia Barufi, 2016. "From Rivers to Roads: Spatial Mismatch and Inequality of Opportunity in Urban Labor Markets of a Megacity," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2016_40, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    4. Ana Maria Bonomi Barufi, 2016. "Should I Stay Or Should I Go? Dynamic Agglomeration Economies In Brazil," Anais do XLIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 43rd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 164, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    5. Patricia C Melo & Daniel J Graham & David Levinson & Sarah Aarabi, 2017. "Agglomeration, accessibility and productivity: Evidence for large metropolitan areas in the US," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(1), pages 179-195, January.
    6. D'Costa, Sabine & Overman, Henry G., 2014. "The urban wage growth premium: Sorting or learning?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 168-179.
    7. Daniel Graham & Kurt Dender, 2011. "Estimating the agglomeration benefits of transport investments: some tests for stability," Transportation, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 409-426, May.
    8. Patrícia C. Melo, 2022. "Will COVID‐19 hinder or aid the transition to sustainable urban mobility? Spotlight on Portugal's largest urban agglomeration," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(S1), pages 80-106, November.
    9. Haddad, Eduardo A. & Hewings, Geoffrey J.D. & Porsse, Alexandre A. & Van Leeuwen, Eveline S. & Vieira, Renato S., 2015. "The underground economy: Tracking the higher-order economic impacts of the São Paulo Subway System," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 18-30.
    10. Graham, Daniel J. & Gibbons, Stephen, 2019. "Quantifying Wider Economic Impacts of agglomeration for transport appraisal: Existing evidence and future directions," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 1-1.
    11. Haddad, Eduardo Amaral & Lozano-Gracia, Nancy & Germani, Eduardo & Vieira, Renato S. & Nakamura, Shohei & Skoufias, Emmanuel & Alves, Bianca Bianchi, 2019. "Mobility in cities: Distributional impact analysis of transportation improvements in São Paulo Metropolitan Region," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 125-142.
    12. Haddad, Eduardo & Hewings, Geoffrey & Porsse, Alexandre & Van Leeuwen, Eveline & Vieira, Renato, 2013. "The Underground Economy: Tracking the Wider Impacts of the São Paulo Subway System," TD NEREUS 8-2013, Núcleo de Economia Regional e Urbana da Universidade de São Paulo (NEREUS).
    13. Anna Matas & Josep-Lluis Raymond & Josep-Lluis Roig, 2015. "Wages and Accessibility: The Impact of Transport Infrastructure," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(7), pages 1236-1254, July.
    14. Gustavo A. García, 2019. "Agglomeration economies in the presence of an informal sector: the Colombian case," Revue d'économie régionale et urbaine, Armand Colin, vol. 0(2), pages 355-388.
    15. Nygaard, Christian & Parkinson, Sharon & reynolds, margaret, 2021. "Agglomeration effects and housing market dynamics," SocArXiv k9tcx, Center for Open Science.
    16. Guangliang Yang & Lixing Li & Shihe Fu, 2020. "Do rural migrants benefit from labor market agglomeration economies? Evidence from Chinese cities," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 910-931, September.
    17. Rosa Sanchis-Guarner, 2012. "Driving Up Wages: The Effects of Road Construction in Great Britain," SERC Discussion Papers 0120, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    18. Devesh Singh, 2022. "Cluster Space Among Labor Productivity, Urbanization, and Agglomeration of Industries in Hungary," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(2), pages 1008-1027, June.
    19. Sohani Fatehin & David L. Sjoquist, 2021. "State and Local Taxes and Employment by Wage Level," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 35(1), pages 53-65, February.
    20. Brunetti, Irene & Intraligi, Valerio & Ricci, Andrea & Vittori, Claudia, 2023. "Peer interactions, local markets, and wages: Evidence from Italy," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1235, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    21. Bonomi Barufi, Ana Maria & Amaral Haddad, Eduardo & Nijkamp, Peter, 2016. "Should I Stay or Should I Go? Selection on Migration and Learning in Cities in Brazil," TD NEREUS 1-2016, Núcleo de Economia Regional e Urbana da Universidade de São Paulo (NEREUS).
    22. Jaume Masip Tresserra, 2013. "Sub-centres and Urban Inequality: A study on Social Equity in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region," ERSA conference papers ersa13p64, European Regional Science Association.
    23. Anna Matas & José Luís Raymond & José Luís Roig, 2011. "The impact of agglomeration effects and accessibility on wages," Working Papers XREAP2011-16, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Nov 2011.

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