Trade and towns: Heterogeneous adjustment to a border shock
Details
Serval ID
serval:BIB_A5FFF580A51D
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Trade and towns: Heterogeneous adjustment to a border shock
Journal
Journal of Urban Economics
ISSN
0094-1190
Publication state
Published
Issued date
09/2017
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
105
Pages
162-175
Language
english
Abstract
We study the effects of changes in trade openness on wages and employment across towns of different sizes, using Austrian regional data and the fall of the Iron Curtain as a quasi-experimental setting. We find improved access to foreign markets to boost both employment and nominal wages in border regions, but large towns tend to have larger wage responses and smaller employment responses than small towns. These adjustment patterns are consistent with a multi-region model featuring labor supply elasticities that vary with town size. The implied differential border-town welfare gains are related non-monotonically to town size, peaking at a population level of about 150,000.
Keywords
trade liberalization, city size, spatial adjustment, natural quasi-experiment, Economics and Econometrics, Urban Studies, Economics and Econometrics, Urban Studies
Create date
02/10/2017 9:21
Last modification date
21/08/2019 5:17