Essays on Urban Economics
Cities present high levels of worker and business productivity thanks to their agglomeration economies, which are usually capitalised in higher wages. Cities are, moreover, the perfect environment for consumption, thanks to their large supply of amenities. However, the density of cities is at the sa...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2016 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de la UB |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/100811 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/100811 http://tdx.cat/handle/10803/387318 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Economia urbana Geografia econòmica Comerç Urban economics Economic geography Commerce |
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Essays on Urban Economics |
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Essays on Urban Economics |
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Essays on Urban Economics Sánchez Vidal, María Economia urbana Geografia econòmica Comerç Urban economics Economic geography Commerce |
| title_short |
Essays on Urban Economics |
| title_full |
Essays on Urban Economics |
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Essays on Urban Economics |
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Essays on Urban Economics |
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Essays on Urban Economics |
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Sánchez Vidal, María |
| author |
Sánchez Vidal, María |
| author_facet |
Sánchez Vidal, María |
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author |
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Viladecans Marsal, Elisabet Jofre Monseny, Jordi Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia Espanyola |
| dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv |
Economia urbana Geografia econòmica Comerç Urban economics Economic geography Commerce |
| topic |
Economia urbana Geografia econòmica Comerç Urban economics Economic geography Commerce |
| description |
Cities present high levels of worker and business productivity thanks to their agglomeration economies, which are usually capitalised in higher wages. Cities are, moreover, the perfect environment for consumption, thanks to their large supply of amenities. However, the density of cities is at the same time responsible for rising congestion costs and higher housing prices. Thus, and in line with the urban economics literature, the equilibrium city size depends on the trade-off between the benefits accrued from these agglomeration forces and the costs associated with larger cities. This thesis contributes to this literature by providing three interesting findings about the economics of city formation and city evolution. First, this thesis inspects one of the mechanisms driving the existence of different cities of different sizes. Using data from US cities, it studies the evolution of city growth throughout the twentieth century. More specifically, the analysis focuses on the role played by the new-born cities created during the decades between 1900 and 2000. The first finding is that there are differences in city growth rates according to the age of the city. In general, when a city is born it presents a very high growth rate but, as the decades pass, it matures and its growth rate stabilises or even declines. Second, the results suggest that most of the growth differential across cities is driven by their first decade of existence, which is generally in line with the parametric results. This thesis also estimates the real net local employment responses to large manufacturing plant closures as a result of their international relocations. Specifically, it estimates the employment effects of the closure of 45 large manufacturing plants in Spain, which relocated to (mainly) developing countries between 2001 and 2006. Each municipality experiencing a closure is matched to a small set of comparable municipalities in terms of employment level and industry mix in the year 2000. It is found that treatments and controls do not differ in their 1990-2000 (pre-treatment) employment trends either, thereby lending credence to the identification assumption underpinning the differences-in-differences estimates used in this chapter. The results show that when a plant closes, for each job directly lost in the plant closure, only between 0.3 and 0.6 jobs are actually lost in the local economy, with the adjustment being concentrated in local incumbent firms in the industry having suffered the closure. Finally, this thesis studies the effects of big-box store openings, usually located in out-of-town sites, on grocery stores, which are typically identified as city centre consumption amenities. Using an RDD analysis and focusing on the food sector, this chapter makes use of a regulation aimed at restricting the entry of big-box stores as the source of exogenous variation. The results indicate that, after a big-box opens, the affected municipality gradually loses grocery stores, typically from the city centre, showing evidence of downtown hollowing out. In fact, four years after the opening, between 20% and 30% of pre-existing grocery stores have closed down. Moreover, when evaluating the heterogeneity of these effects, the results seem to show that there are no significant short-run differences between big-box store openings in the city centre and those out-of-town. This indicates that, at least in the short-run, both downtown and suburb big-boxes act as direct competitors of grocery stores. An additional heterogeneity analysis is also performed by splitting the results between conventional and discount big-box stores, where the former are chains selling well-known brands whereas the latter typically sell their own brands at lower prices. In this case, all the effect on grocery stores can be attributed to conventional stores, showing evidence that these shops, which sell the same kind of products as grocery stores but in a one-stop shop, may match consumer preferences better and may also be more convenient for them. |
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2016 |
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2016 |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
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https://hdl.handle.net/2445/100811 http://tdx.cat/handle/10803/387318 |
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https://hdl.handle.net/2445/100811 http://tdx.cat/handle/10803/387318 |
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Inglés |
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Inglés |
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(c) Sánchez, 2016 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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(c) Sánchez, 2016 |
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Universitat de Barcelona |
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Universitat de Barcelona |
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Tesis Doctorals - Departament - Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia Espanyola reponame:Dipòsit Digital de la UB instname:Universidad de Barcelona |
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Universidad de Barcelona |
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Essays on Urban EconomicsSánchez Vidal, MaríaEconomia urbanaGeografia econòmicaComerçUrban economicsEconomic geographyCommerceCities present high levels of worker and business productivity thanks to their agglomeration economies, which are usually capitalised in higher wages. Cities are, moreover, the perfect environment for consumption, thanks to their large supply of amenities. However, the density of cities is at the same time responsible for rising congestion costs and higher housing prices. Thus, and in line with the urban economics literature, the equilibrium city size depends on the trade-off between the benefits accrued from these agglomeration forces and the costs associated with larger cities. This thesis contributes to this literature by providing three interesting findings about the economics of city formation and city evolution. First, this thesis inspects one of the mechanisms driving the existence of different cities of different sizes. Using data from US cities, it studies the evolution of city growth throughout the twentieth century. More specifically, the analysis focuses on the role played by the new-born cities created during the decades between 1900 and 2000. The first finding is that there are differences in city growth rates according to the age of the city. In general, when a city is born it presents a very high growth rate but, as the decades pass, it matures and its growth rate stabilises or even declines. Second, the results suggest that most of the growth differential across cities is driven by their first decade of existence, which is generally in line with the parametric results. This thesis also estimates the real net local employment responses to large manufacturing plant closures as a result of their international relocations. Specifically, it estimates the employment effects of the closure of 45 large manufacturing plants in Spain, which relocated to (mainly) developing countries between 2001 and 2006. Each municipality experiencing a closure is matched to a small set of comparable municipalities in terms of employment level and industry mix in the year 2000. It is found that treatments and controls do not differ in their 1990-2000 (pre-treatment) employment trends either, thereby lending credence to the identification assumption underpinning the differences-in-differences estimates used in this chapter. The results show that when a plant closes, for each job directly lost in the plant closure, only between 0.3 and 0.6 jobs are actually lost in the local economy, with the adjustment being concentrated in local incumbent firms in the industry having suffered the closure. Finally, this thesis studies the effects of big-box store openings, usually located in out-of-town sites, on grocery stores, which are typically identified as city centre consumption amenities. Using an RDD analysis and focusing on the food sector, this chapter makes use of a regulation aimed at restricting the entry of big-box stores as the source of exogenous variation. The results indicate that, after a big-box opens, the affected municipality gradually loses grocery stores, typically from the city centre, showing evidence of downtown hollowing out. In fact, four years after the opening, between 20% and 30% of pre-existing grocery stores have closed down. Moreover, when evaluating the heterogeneity of these effects, the results seem to show that there are no significant short-run differences between big-box store openings in the city centre and those out-of-town. This indicates that, at least in the short-run, both downtown and suburb big-boxes act as direct competitors of grocery stores. An additional heterogeneity analysis is also performed by splitting the results between conventional and discount big-box stores, where the former are chains selling well-known brands whereas the latter typically sell their own brands at lower prices. In this case, all the effect on grocery stores can be attributed to conventional stores, showing evidence that these shops, which sell the same kind of products as grocery stores but in a one-stop shop, may match consumer preferences better and may also be more convenient for them.Las ciudades presentan elevados niveles de productividad gracias a la existencia de economías de aglomeración, las cuales suelen capitalizarse en sueldos más altos. Además, las ciudades son el lugar perfecto para el consumo, gracias a su variada oferta de productos. Sin embargo, la densidad de las ciudades es también la responsable de aumentar los niveles de congestión y los precios de la vivienda. Por eso, de acuerdo con la literatura centrada en la economía urbana, el tamaño de equilibrio de las ciudades depende de una lucha entre dos fuerzas distintas: los beneficios que generan las economías de aglomeración y los costes asociados al gran tamaño de las ciudades. Esta tesis contribuye a la literatura aportando tres resultados interesantes sobre la formación y la evolución de las ciudades. En primer lugar, inspecciona uno de los mecanismos que genera la existencia de diferentes ciudades de diferentes tamaños mediante el uso de datos para Estados Unidos durante el siglo XX. En concreto, el análisis se focaliza en el estudio de las ciudades que nacieron entre el 1900 y el 2000, demostrando que existen diferencias en las tasas de crecimiento de las ciudades dependiendo de la edad de las mismas. En general, cuando una ciudad nace, presenta un crecimiento muy elevado pero a menudo que las décadas pasan, su crecimiento se estabiliza o incluso decrece. Además, este mismo estudio demuestra que dichas diferencias en el crecimiento vienen determinadas por la primera década de su existencia. El segundo análisis empírico de la tesis se centra en estimar los efectos netos del cierre de grandes plantas manufactureras (como resultado de relocalizaciones internacionales) en el empleo local. Más concretamente, el estudio estima los efectos en el empleo local de 45 cierres de grandes plantas manufactureras en España que entre 2001 y 2006 se relocalizaron en países en vías de desarrollo. Para realizar el análisis, cada municipio que sufre un cierre es emparejado con un grupo de municipios comparables en términos de niveles de empleo y composición industrial. Los resultados muestran que, cuando una planta cierra sus puertas, por cada trabajo que se pierde, la economía local solo pierde entre 0,3 y 0,6 puestos de trabajo, dándose este ajuste en las empresas del sector que se encontraban en el municipio anteriormente al cierre de la gran planta. Por último, el tercer estudio empírico de la presente tesis analiza los efectos de la apertura de grandes superficies comerciales, principalmente localizadas en las afueras de las ciudades, en las pequeñas tiendas de alimentación. Este estudio utiliza una regulación comercial que restringe la entrada de grandes superficies comerciales en España como la fuente de variación exógena. Los resultados indican que cuatro años después de la apertura de la gran superficie comercial, entre el 20 y el 30% de las tiendas de alimentación pre-existentes cierran sus puertas. Además, los resultados también indican que no existen diferencias en los efectos provocados por las grandes superficies localizadas en los centros urbanos respecto a las que se sitúan en las afueras. El último resultado de este estudio se centra en demostrar cómo las superficies de descuento no tienen ningún efecto sobre los pequeños comercios de alimentación, siendo las superficies convencionales las que provocan la pérdida de pequeños comercios mencionada anteriormente.Universitat de BarcelonaViladecans Marsal, ElisabetJofre Monseny, JordiUniversitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia Espanyola2016info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesisinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2445/100811http://tdx.cat/handle/10803/387318Tesis Doctorals - Departament - Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia Espanyolareponame:Dipòsit Digital de la UBinstname:Universidad de BarcelonaInglés(c) Sánchez, 2016info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/1008112026-05-27T06:46:51Z |
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15,301629 |