The objective of the research is to identify the locational factors that influenced the decision to expand winemaking activity into other regions of Brazil. In recent years, winemaking has expanded into new regions in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Serra do Sudeste and Campanha) and into the São Francisco River Valley (states of Bahia and Pernambuco) regions where this activity had not previou...

Entrepreneurship and Market Size: The Case of Young College Graduates in Italy We analyze empirically the effects of urban agglomeration on Italian college graduates’ work possibilities as entrepreneurs three years after graduation. We find that each 100,000 inhabitant-increase in the size of the individual’s province of work reduces the chances of being an entrepreneur by 0.2-0.3 percent. This...

We use geocoded administrative establishment data in Texas to estimate the effects of localization economies on the spatial persistence of industrial employment in the software industry. The choice of the software industry allows us to distinguish between the spatial persistence of employment due to human capital spillovers from that due to the labor pool channel. Unlike previous research, this...

In this paper I develop an empirical framework to estimate the role of agglomeration externalities, especially those stemming from input-output linkages, in the location process of US manufacturing plants. Furthermore, drawing on the model of Holmes and Stevens (2004b), I propose a way to reconciliate some previous puzzling results about proximity to consumers’ demand and the scope of agglomera...

In this paper we study the life cycle locational choices of heterogeneous households and characterize the dynamics of metropolitan areas. We develop an overlapping generations model for households in of a system of multiple jurisdictions. At each point of time households choose among the finite number of jurisdictions, pick consumption and housing plans, and vote over education expenditures and...

We assess the efficiency of regional innovation systems (RIS) in Germany by means of a knowledge production function. This function relates private sector research and development (R&D) activity in a region to the number of inventions that have been registered by residents of that region. Different measures and estimation approaches lead to rather similar assessments. We find that both spillove...

In this paper, I examine the role of banks in propagating local economic shocks from one area to another through their network of bank branches, by exploiting a newly developed branch-level dataset. Specifically, I examine the change in the geographical distribution of small business loans within each bank network in response to: 1) increases in deposit growth due to presence in areas with new ...

How does isolation affect the economic activity of cities? Transport costs are widely considered an important barrier to local economic activity but their impact in developing countries is not well-studied. This paper investigates the role of intercity transport costs in determining the income of sub-Saharan African cities. In particular, focusing on fifteen countries whose largest city is a po...

Job-Hopping in Silicon Valley: Some Evidence Concerning the Micro-Foundations of a High Technology Cluster In Silicon Valley’s computer cluster, skilled employees are reported to move rapidly between competing firms. This job-hopping facilitates the reallocation of resources towards firms with superior innovations, but it also creates human capital externalities that reduce incentives to invest...

During tumor progression, alternative splicing gives rise to different Mena protein isoforms. We analyzed how Mena11a, an isoform enriched in epithelia and epithelial-like cells, affects Mena-dependent regulation of actin dynamics and cell behavior. While other Mena isoforms promote actin polymerization and drive membrane protrusion, we find that Mena11a decreases actin polymerization and growt...