0000000000108899
AUTHOR
Kristian Behrens
showing 20 related works from this author
Welfare, Home Market Effects, and Horizontal Foreign Direct Investment
2005
We investigate the spatial distribution and organization of an imperfectly competitive industry when firms may choose to operate more than a single production unit. Focusing on a short-run setting with a fixed mass of firms, we fully characterize the spatial equilibria analytically. Comparing the equilibrium and the first-best, we show that both organizational and spatial inefficiencies may arise. In particular, when fixed costs are low enough the market outcome may well lead to overinvestment and, therefore, to too many multinationals operating from a social point of view. Furthermore, once multinationals are taken into account, the market outcome may well lead too little agglomeration.
Do Rent-Seeking and Interregional Transfers Contribute to Urban Primacy in Sub-Saharan Africa?
2006
We develop an economic geography model in which mobile skilled workers choose between working in the production sector or becoming part of an unproductive political elite. The elite sets tax rates on skilled and unskilled workers to maximize its own welfare by extracting rents, thereby influencing the spatial allocation of production and changing the available range of consumption goods. We show that such behavior increases the likelihood of agglomeration and of urban primacy. In equilibrium, the elite may tax the unskilled workers but will never tax the skilled workers, and there are rural-urban transfers towards the agglomeration. The size of the elite and the magnitude of the tax burden …
Population Growth and Manufacturing Real Wages in 18th Century England: A Spatial Perspective
2004
We develop a two-region population growth model of economic geography and show that a process of urbanization has a substantial impact on the evolution of manufacturing real wages. Whereas real wages decline as the population increases when the spatial structure of the economy is fixed, they actually rise in the long-run when factors are mobile. Agglomeration may hence be seen as a rational response to declining real wages and provides a new explanation of why manufacturing real wages did not decline prior to the Industrial Revolution in England, despite a historically unprecedented population growth.
Agglomeration without trade: how non-traded goods shape the space-economy
2004
Abstract We develop a spatial general equilibrium model in which the absence of interregional trade is an endogenous outcome. Extending the model developed by Ottaviano, Tabuchi, and Thisse (Int. Econ. Rev. 43 (2002) 409), we show that equilibria without trade differ significantly from those obtained in the presence of trade, which suggests that the presence of non-traded goods has a significant impact on spatial structures. Somewhat surprisingly, equilibrium structures without trade are richer than those with trade because partial agglomeration becomes a feasible outcome. Equilibria now depend on the ratio of mobile to immobile factors and an increase in that ratio triggers a process of sp…
'Dual' Gravity: Using Spatial Econometrics to Control for Multilateral Resistance
2010
We propose a quantity-based `dual' version of the gravity equation that yields an estimating equation with both cross-sectional interdependence and spatially lagged error terms. Such an equation can be concisely estimated using spatial econometric techniques. We illustrate this methodology by applying it to the Canada-U.S. data set used previously, among others, by Anderson and van Wincoop (2003) and Feenstra (2002, 2004). Our key result is to show that controlling directly for spatial interdependence across trade flows, as suggested by theory, significantly reduces border effects because it captures `multilateral resistance'. Using a spatial autoregressive moving average specification, we …
Testing the Home Market Effects in a Multi-country World: The Theory
2004
We extend the two-country model by Krugman (1980) to a multi-country set-up and show that the `home-market effect' highlighted with two countries does not readily extend to such a more general setting. In particular, we prove that the most important result, namely the disproportionate causation from demand to supply, generalizes only under the fairly implausible assumption of pairwise symmetric trade costs between all countries. We argue, therefore, that the implications of product differentiation for the structure of world trade are better characterized in terms of spatial (`accessibility') and non-spatial (`attraction') effects, and we provide a theory-based specification that suggests ho…
Labor Market Integration and Migration: Impacts on Skill Formation and the Wage Structure
2006
We analyze the impacts of labor market integration and migration on skill formation, wage structures, and per capita GDP of host and source countries. To do so, we propose a model in which heterogeneous agents invest in the acquisition of skills, and in which final good production exhibits increasing returns to scale in the range of available skills. Labor market integration, by allowing for migration in response to wage differentials, changes the wage structures and, therefore, the incentives to become skilled in both host and source countries. We show that our model can largely replicate the empirical evidence concerning international migration, the widening international income dispersio…
Regional Inequality and Product Variety
2005
We investigate how differences in set-up costs of various types affect the trade-off between global efficiency and spatial equity and show that the standard assumption of symmetry in fixed costs masks the existence of an interesting effect: the range of available varieties varies depends on the spatial distribution of firms. In such a setting, even when the market outcome leads to excessive agglomeration under symmetric fixed costs, a planner opts for asymmetric fixed costs and more agglomeration. The reason is that the losses induced by more agglomeration are offset by the gains due to additional product variety.
On the Location and 'Lock-In' of Cities: Geography vs. Transportation Technology
2004
We investigate where cities are located in a spatial economy and why they tend to get 'locked-in' at particular sites. Building on Fujita and Krugman (1995) we show that geography and/or transportation technology must exhibit some 'non-smoothness' for cities to possibly become 'locked-in' in location space. Our results establish that no asymmetric monocentric equilibrium can be generically sustained when space is homogenous and transportation technologies are 'smooth', whereas it can in the presence of transportation hubs and/or concave transport cost functions. This suggests that cities are drawn to transportation hubs during the early stages of economic development, whereas they can be su…
How endogenous asymmetries in interregional market access trigger regional divergence
2005
We investigate how asymmetric trade patterns in differentiated products affect the regional distribution of economic activities. The asymmetry in interregional market access is an endogenous result of price competition and industry location and arises for intermediate values of trade costs. We show that the emergence of one-way trade in differentiated products gives rise to strong agglomeration forces and leads to the absorption of the smaller region's industry by the larger region. The number of spatial equilibria increases once the pattern of trade is endogenously accounted for. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Industry Reallocations in a Globalizing Economy
2007
We distill the main insights from recent trade models on firms' responses to globalization. Our primary aim is to assess the economic impact and the welfare implications of the resulting reallocation of resources across firms and countries. In so doing, we bring theory into life through the numerical implementation of a theoretical framework calibrated on European data, which encompasses aspects of economic geography, firm heterogeneity, and firms' organizational choices. Our final purpose is to provide a comprehensive background for empirical investigations and to stimulate further theoretical research.
Changes in Transport and Non Transport Costs: Local vs. Global Impacts in a Spatial Network
2007
We develop a multi-country Dixit-Stiglitz trade model and analyze how industry location and welfare respond to changes in: (i) transport frictions (e.g., infrastructure, transportation technology); and (ii) non-transport frictions (e.g., tariffs, standards and regulations). We show that changes in non-transport frictions, which are usually origin-destination specific, do not allow for any clear prediction as to changes in industry location and welfare; whereas changes in transport frictions, which are usually not origin-destination specific, may allow for such predictions. In particular, we show that reductions in transport frictions occurring at links around which the spatial network is lo…
Commodity Tax Competition and Industry Location Under the Destination- and the Origin-Principle
2007
We develop a model of commodity tax competition with monopolistically competitive internationally mobile firms, transport costs, and asymmetric country sizes. We investigate the impacts of non-cooperative tax setting, as well as of tax harmonization and changes in the tax principle, in both the short and the long run. The origin principle, when compared to the destination principle, is shown to exacerbate tax competition and to erode tax revenues, yet leads to a more equal spatial distribution of economic activity. This suggests that federations which care about spatial inequality, like the European Union, face a non-trivial choice for their tax principle that goes beyond the standard consi…
General Equilibrium Models of Monopolistic Competition: CRRA Versus CARA
2005
We analyze a class of "large group" Chamberlinian monopolistic competition models using multiplicatively quasi-separable (MQS) and additively quasi-separable (AQS) functions. We first prove that the MQS and AQS functions are equivalent to the "constant relative risk aversion" (CRRA) and "constant absolute risk aversion" (CARA) classes of functions, respectively. Whereas both approaches allow for closed-form solutions, only the AQS functions yield profit-maximizing prices that decrease in the mass of competing firms. We then characterize the equilibrium in both cases and discuss some possible applications of the AQS framework to trade, growth, and development.
Gains from Trade and Efficiency under Monopolistic Competition: A Variable Elasticity Case
2006
We present a general equilibrium model of monopolistic competition with variable demand elasticities and investigate the impact of free trade on welfare and efficiency. First, contrary to the constant elasticity case, in which all gains from trade are due to increasing product diversity, our model features gains from pro-competitive effects. Second, we prove that the market outcome is not efficient because too many firms operate at an inefficiently small scale. Last, we illustrate that free trade raises efficiency by reducing the gap between the equilibrium utility and the optimal utility.
How endogenous asymmetries in interregional market access trigger regional divergence
2005
International audience; We investigate how asymmetric trade patterns in differentiated products affect the regional distribution of economic activities. The asymmetry in interregional market access is an endogenous result of price competition and industry location and arises for intermediate values of trade costs. We show that the emergence of one-way trade in differentiated products gives rise to strong agglomeration forces and leads to the absorption of the smaller region's industry by the larger region. The number of spatial equilibria increases once the pattern of trade is endogenously accounted for.
International trade and internal geography revisited
2003
Trade liberalization and trade policy obviously affect the internal distribution of economic activities within a liberalizing country. We show that the impact of decreasing international trade costs on the regional distributionof economic activities crucially depends on the value of transport costs internalto the country. Trade liberalization in developing countries with poor internal infrastructures and small volumes of interregional trade is likely to increase regional disparities, while developed countries with good internalinfrastructures and large volumes of interregional trade are likely to experienceredispersion. We argue that the way transport and trade costs are modeledmight have a…
Localisation et endogénéité des structures d'échanges
2003
We develop a model that investigates how strategically interacting firms share a given set of spatially separated markets. We show that, for intermediate values of transport costs, the spatial distribution of firms determines the structure of interregional trade, which in return influences this distribution. Our results highlight the strong and circular link between the spatial distribution of economic activities and the endogenous structure of trade. Further, they suggest that agglomeration of firms is not necessarily incompatible with high values of transport costs. (FRE)
''Dual'' gravity: Using spatial econometrics to control for multilateral resistance.
2007
We propose a quantity-based `dual' version of the gravity equation that yields an estimating equation with both cross-sectional interdependence and spatially lagged error terms. Such an equation can be concisely estimated using spatial econometric techniques. We illustrate this methodology by applying it to the Canada-U.S. data set used previously, among others, by Anderson and van Wincoop (2003) and Feenstra (2002, 2004). Our key result is to show that controlling directly for spatial interdependence across trade flows, as suggested by theory, significantly reduces border effects because it captures `multilateral resistance'. Using a spatial autoregressive moving average specification, we …
Trade is not necessary for agglomeration to arise
2003
We develop a spatial general equilibrium model in which the absence of trade is an endogenous outcome and we show that trade is not a necessarycondition for agglomeration to arise. More precisely, extending the modeldeveloped by Ottaviano et al. [13], we show that equilibria without tradediffer significantly from those obtained in the presence of trade. Somewhatsurprisingly, equilibrium structures without trade are richer than those withtrade, since partial agglomeration becomes a feasible outcome. Equilibrianow depend on the ratio of mobile to immobile factors and an increase in thatratio triggers a process of spatial agglomeration.