Working Paper

Location and the growth of nations

Abstract: Does a country's (long-term) growth depend upon what happens in countries that are nearby? Such linkages could occur for a variety of reasons, including demand and technology spillovers. We present a series of tests to determine the existence of such relationships and the forms that they might take. We find that a country's growth rate is closely related to that of nearby countries, and show that this correlation reflects more that the existence of common shocks. Trade alone does not appear responsible for these linkages either. In addition, we find that being near a large market contributes to growth.

Keywords: Economic development;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Part of Series: Working Papers in Applied Economic Theory

Publication Date: 1997

Number: 97-02