Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Papers in Innovation Studies,
Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research

No 2012/10: How Local are Spatial Density Externalities? evidence from square grid data

Martin Andersson (), Johan Klaesson () and Johan P. Larsson ()
Additional contact information
Martin Andersson: CIRCLE, Lund University, Postal: CIRCLE, Lund University, PO Box 117, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden
Johan Klaesson: CEnSE, Jönköping International Business School
Johan P. Larsson: CEnSE,Jönköping International Business School

Abstract: We analyze the geographic scale at which density externalities operate and their attenuation with distance. Using square grid data at a fine spatial resolution, we find that a doubling of neighborhood density, measured as the density of 1 km2 squares, yields an increase in the overall wage-level of a square in the order of 3 percent. The density of the wider region to which the neighborhood belongs shows a significantly smaller effect. Highly educated workers gain more from proximity to others, and when we decrease the sizes of the squares the effect is still stronger for such workers. Density effects operate simultaneously at different spatial levels, and we argue that the neighborhood effects are more prone to capture localized non-market effects, such as knowledge spillovers driven by face-to-face interaction.

Keywords: spatial scale; density; productivity; spatial dependence; geo-coded data; external scale economies; agglomeration externalities; Sweden; Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP)

JEL-codes: C21; R11; R12

24 pages, December 1, 2012

Full text files

201210_Andersson.pdf PDF-file 

Download statistics

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Torben Schubert ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

This page generated on 2024-02-05 17:12:33.