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

There is a large and extensive literature examining the strength of agglomeration economies and, more generally, the determinants of spatial variations in productivity for developed countries. However, the corresponding literature for developing co...

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Main Authors:	Quintero, Luis E., Roberts, Mark
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:	AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES MARKET ACCESS DEVELOPING ECONOMIES SUBSIDIES DIVERSIFICATION HUMAN CAPITAL PRODUCTIVITY CITY PRODUCTIVITY GEOSPATIAL ECONOMICS EXTERNALITIES EDUCATION QUALITY LABOR SKILLS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/819661534785390193/Explaining-spatial-variations-in-productivity-evidence-from-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30287

id	okr-10986-30287
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-302872021-06-08T14:42:47Z Explaining Spatial Variations in Productivity : Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean Quintero, Luis E. Roberts, Mark AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES MARKET ACCESS DEVELOPING ECONOMIES SUBSIDIES DIVERSIFICATION HUMAN CAPITAL PRODUCTIVITY CITY PRODUCTIVITY GEOSPATIAL ECONOMICS EXTERNALITIES EDUCATION QUALITY LABOR SKILLS There is a large and extensive literature examining the strength of agglomeration economies and, more generally, the determinants of spatial variations in productivity for developed countries. However, the corresponding literature for developing countries is comparatively scant. This paper contributes to filling this knowledge gap by providing estimates for city productivity premiums and different sources of agglomeration effects for 16 countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region. While two of the countries in our sample -- Brazil and Colombia -- have been considered by the literature, the remaining 14 countries have not been previously analyzed. The paper presents estimates for the region as well as comparable estimates for each country using a harmonized data set with characteristics of individual workers and features of the cities in which the workers live. In addition to examining the strength of agglomeration economies, the roles of human capital externalities and market access in explaining subnational productivity variations are assessed. The paper finds that citywide human capital externalities appear much stronger than agglomeration economies in explaining productivity variation in all the considered countries. There is considerable heterogeneity in the estimated strength of human capital externalities across countries, which could be a reflection of country differences in educational quality. 2018-08-23T16:27:54Z 2018-08-23T16:27:54Z 2018-08 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/819661534785390193/Explaining-spatial-variations-in-productivity-evidence-from-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30287 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8560 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Latin America & Caribbean Caribbean Central America Latin America South America Brazil Colombia
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES MARKET ACCESS DEVELOPING ECONOMIES SUBSIDIES DIVERSIFICATION HUMAN CAPITAL PRODUCTIVITY CITY PRODUCTIVITY GEOSPATIAL ECONOMICS EXTERNALITIES EDUCATION QUALITY LABOR SKILLS
spellingShingle	AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES MARKET ACCESS DEVELOPING ECONOMIES SUBSIDIES DIVERSIFICATION HUMAN CAPITAL PRODUCTIVITY CITY PRODUCTIVITY GEOSPATIAL ECONOMICS EXTERNALITIES EDUCATION QUALITY LABOR SKILLS Quintero, Luis E. Roberts, Mark Explaining Spatial Variations in Productivity : Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean
geographic_facet	Latin America & Caribbean Caribbean Central America Latin America South America Brazil Colombia
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8560
description	There is a large and extensive literature examining the strength of agglomeration economies and, more generally, the determinants of spatial variations in productivity for developed countries. However, the corresponding literature for developing countries is comparatively scant. This paper contributes to filling this knowledge gap by providing estimates for city productivity premiums and different sources of agglomeration effects for 16 countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region. While two of the countries in our sample -- Brazil and Colombia -- have been considered by the literature, the remaining 14 countries have not been previously analyzed. The paper presents estimates for the region as well as comparable estimates for each country using a harmonized data set with characteristics of individual workers and features of the cities in which the workers live. In addition to examining the strength of agglomeration economies, the roles of human capital externalities and market access in explaining subnational productivity variations are assessed. The paper finds that citywide human capital externalities appear much stronger than agglomeration economies in explaining productivity variation in all the considered countries. There is considerable heterogeneity in the estimated strength of human capital externalities across countries, which could be a reflection of country differences in educational quality.
format	Working Paper
author	Quintero, Luis E. Roberts, Mark
author_facet	Quintero, Luis E. Roberts, Mark
author_sort	Quintero, Luis E.
title	Explaining Spatial Variations in Productivity : Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean
title_short	Explaining Spatial Variations in Productivity : Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean
title_full	Explaining Spatial Variations in Productivity : Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean
title_fullStr	Explaining Spatial Variations in Productivity : Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean
title_full_unstemmed	Explaining Spatial Variations in Productivity : Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean
title_sort	explaining spatial variations in productivity : evidence from latin america and the caribbean
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2018
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/819661534785390193/Explaining-spatial-variations-in-productivity-evidence-from-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30287
_version_	1764471655774552064

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

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