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  • Working papers and work in progress

Sorting to Expensive Cities [April 2025][CEPR DP 20094][NBER WP 33652]
  • With Cécile Gaubert (UC Berkeley). Circulated priviously under the title "Income sorting and non-homothetic preferences in spatial general equilibrium."
  • A spatial general equilibrium model featuring heterogeneous households holding general, non-homothetic preferences. Utility inequality between college and non-college graduates in the US has risen by more than nominal inequality between 1980 and 2020, even as college graduates increasingly sort into cities with expensive housing.
Economic Geography and Structural Change with Heterothetic Cobb-Douglas Preferences [April 2025]
  • With Clement Bohr (UCLA) and Martí Mestieri (IAE-CSIC and BSE).
  • A parsimonious model featuring non-homothetic demand and integrating structural change and regional disparities. Structural change and regional disparities are two mutually reinforcing outcomes and propagators of the growth process.
  • Press: [VoxEU]
  • This earlier version has more references and provides intermediate steps: [December 2024][CEPR DP 19766] ArXiv: 2412.03755 [doi]
The Emergence, Growth, and Stagnation of Cities: France 1760-2020 [in progress]
  • With Pierre-Philippe Combes (CNRS & Sciences Po), Gilles Duranton (Wharton @ U Penn), Laurent Gobillon (PSE), Clément Gorin (Paris 1)
  • We study the evolution of the French urban system over the past 250 years. Cities are fewer, denser, and (much) larger -- especially the largest.
Heterothetic Cobb Douglas: Theory and applications [April 2023][CEPR DP 18077]
  • With Clement Bohr (UCLA) and Martí Mestieri (IAE-CSIC and BSE).
  • Non-homothetic preferences with unitary demand price-elasticity. Highly tractable. We generalize results in growth theory, international trade, and economic geography.
Firm Hierarchies in Space [in progress]
  • With Diego Puga (CEMFI), Matteo Sartori (CEMFI), and Grigorios Spanos (GSEM)
  • We study the formation of hierarchies in firms that are active in multiple locations.

Publications

Book

Economic Geography and Public Policy [June 2003]
  • With Richard Baldwin, Rikard Forslid, Philippe Martin and Gianmarco Ottaviano, Princeton University Press, 481 pages. [jstor][PUP page]
  • We show how NEG models can be used to analyze trade policy, tax policy, and regional policy.

Referred journal articles
Highways, market access, and spatial sorting [April 2022] ​Trade and frictional unemployment in the global economy [December 2020] Tech Clusters [August 2020]
  • Journal of Economic Perspectives 34(3), pp. 50-76 [doi]
  • With Bill Kerr (Harvard Business School). 
  • What constitutes a tech cluster? How do they function internally? To what degree  policy makers can purposefully foster them?
Comparative advantage and unemployment [August 2020] [Open Access]
  • European Economic Review​ 126 (Article no. 103496) [doi] [Slides]
  • With Céline Carrère (GSEM), Marco Fugazza (UNCTAD), and Marcelo Olarreaga (GSEM). 
  • Trade may increase unemployment in countries with comparative advantage in sectors with less efficient labour markets.
The optimal distribution of population across cities [March 2019]
  • Journal of Urban Economics 110, pp. 102-113 [doi] [Slides] 
  • With David Albouy (U of Illinois), Kristian Behrens (UQAM), and Nathan Seegert (U of Utah). 
  • Press: [EEA Press Release] [The Atlantic's CityLab]
  • New York City is undersized. For at least two reasons.
Trade and towns: Heterogeneous adjustment to a border shock [May 2018]
  • Journal of Urban Economics 105, pp. 162-75 [doi]
  • With Marius Brülhart (HEC Lausanne) and Céline Carrère (GSEM). 
  • Non-technical summary: [LIEPP Sciences Po Policy Brief no. 30]
  • Improved access to foreign markets boosts both employment and nominal wages in border regions. Large towns have larger wage responses and smaller employment responses than small towns.
  • Non-technical summary: [LIEPP Sciences Po Policy Brief no. 30]
A simple model of the Juggernaut effect of trade liberalisation [October 2015]
  • International Economics 143, pp. 70-9 [doi]
  • With Richard Baldwin (HEID). 
  • A political economy model where the principle of reciprocity in multilateral trade talks results in the gradual elimination of tariffs.
Survival of the fittest in cities: Urbanization and inequality [December 2014]
  • Economic Journal 124(581), pp. 1371-1400. [doi] [Appendices] [Data]
  • With Kristian Behrens (UQAM). 
  • Press: [VoxEU] [RES media briefing]
  • Why are large cities both more productive and more unequal than small towns? An answer with a framework that integrates natural advantage, agglomeration economies, and firm selection.
The emulator effect of the Uruguay Round on US Regionalism [November 2014]
  • Review of International Economics 22(5), pp. 1049-78. [doi]
  • With Marco Fugazza (UNCTAD).
  • We uncover an emulator effect of multilateral trade liberalization on subsequent regional trade agreements involving the USA.
Productive cities: Sorting, selection and agglomeration [June 2014 ]
  • Journal of Political Economy 122(3), pp. 507-53 [jstor] [Slides] [Supplemental material]
  • With Kristian Behrens (UQAM) and Gilles Duranton (Wharton).
  • A model of systems of cities that replicates stylized facts about sorting, agglomeration, and selection in cities. And Zipf's law!
Trade in goods and trade in tasks: An integrating framework [January 2014]
  • Journal of International Economics 92(1), pp. 51–62 [doi]
  • With Richard Baldwin
  • Press: [VoxEU] 
  • The Gains-From-Trade, Heckscher–Ohlin, Factor-Price-Equalisation, Stolper–Samuelson, and Rybczynski Theorems in a framework featuring both trade in goods and trade in tasks.
On the origins of land use regulations: Theory and evidence from US metro areas [May 2013] Tempura mutantur: In search of a new testament for NEG [March 2011]
  • Journal of Economic Geography 11(2), pp. 215-30 [doi]
  • With Kristian Behrens 
  • Further extensions of Krugman's original framework unlikely to produce path-breaking new insights. Analyzing heterogeneity, transportation and other public policies, and calibration exercises are more promising.
Labour market reforms, job insecurity, and the flexibility of the employment relationship [January 2009]
  • European Economic Review 53(1), pp. 19-36 [doi]
  • With Niko Matouschek and Paolo Ramezzana .
  • Wage bargaining takes place under asymmetric information. A reduction in firing taxes leads workers and firms to switch from rigid to flexible employment contracts. Which further amplifies the increase in job instability caused by this policy reform.
Off-shoring of routine tasks and (de)industrialization: Threat or opportunity—and for whom? [March 2008]
  • Journal of Urban Economics 63(2), pp. 517-35 [doi].
  • Offshoring and agglomeration economies lock the comparative advantage of advanced nations in complex or strategic functions. Protectionist industrial policies may backfire.
Trade and growth with heterogeneous firms [January 2008]
  • Journal of International Economics 74(1), pp. 21-34 [doi] [Guide to calculations]
  • With Richard Baldwin.
  • Greater openness produces anti-and pro-growth effects.
Entry and asymmetric lobbying: Why governments pick losers [September 2007]
  • Journal of the European Economic Association 5(5), pp. 1064-93 
  • With Richard Baldwin. 
  • Non-technical version here.
  • Press: [FT Deutschland, February 2nd, 2002] [Tim Harford’s FT blog, February 15th, 2008]. 
  • Governments do not pick losers. Losers pick government policy.
Can South-South trade liberalization stimulate North-South trade? [June 2006]
  • Journal of Economic Integration, 21(2) pp. 234-53 [jstor]
  • With Marco Fugazza.  
  • In the presence of input-output linkages, South-South trade liberalization can boost South-North trade.
Agglomeration and trade with input-output linkages and capital mobility [June 2006]
  • Spatial Economic Analysis 1(1), pp. 101-26 [doi] 
  • A New Economic Geography model featuring the ingredients in the title.
The 'Genome' of NEG Models with Input-Output Linkages: A Positive and Normative Synthesis [April 2006]
  • Journal of Economic Geography 6(2), pp. 113-39 [lead article][doi]
  • With Gianmarco Ottaviano. 
  • Positive and normative properties of New Economic Geography models featuring input-output linkages, with pencil and paper.
Agglomeration and Welfare: The Core-Periphery Model in the Light of Bentham, Kaldor, and Rawls [January 2006]
  • Journal of Public Economics 90(1-2), pp. 325-47 [doi]
  • With Sylvie Charlot, Carl Gaigné and Jacques-François Thisse.
  • Krugman meets Bentham, Hicks, Kaldor, and Rawls.
The Role of Human Capital Investments in the Location Decision of Firms [September 2005]
  • Regional Science and Urban Economics 35(5), pp. 570-83 [doi]
  • With Niko Matouschek. 
  • Do human capital investments act as a force for or against concentration? It depends on whether firms or workers are investing. And on whether investments are industry- or firm-specific.
The Structure of Simple ‘New Economic Geography’ Models (Or, on Identical Twins) [April 2005]
  • Journal of Economic Geography 5(2), pp. 201-34 [doi]
  • Krugman's canonical 1991 JPE model (and many follow ups) solved and characterized with pencil and paper (rather than with numerical simulations).
Home-Market vs. Vote-Market Effect: Equilibrium Location in a Probabilistic Voting Model [February 2004]
  • European Economic Review 48(1), pp. 155-79 [doi]
  • With Federica Sbergami.
  • Likely the first model combining voting and New Economic Geography ingredients. Provides a rationalization of regional policies.
Free Trade Agreements without Delocation [July 2000]
  • Canadian Journal of Economics 33(3), pp. 766-86 [jstor]
  • With Richard Baldwin.
  • Intra-industry trade and concerns for production relocation explain features of modern trade agreements.
Invited articles, comments, and chapters in books

Papers not intended for publication

Note(s)
  • Protection for sale made easy, with Richard Baldwin. June 2007, CEP 800 (older version: CEPR 5452).
  • The impact of trade on intraindustry reallocation and aggregate productivity: A comment, with Richard Baldwin. August 2004, CEPR 4634 and NBER 10718.
Slides Obsolete and dormant papers
  • The Impact of Natural Disasters on the Local Economy, with Giacomo De Giorgi (GSEM) and Costanza Naguib (Bern). Dormant (2024)
  • The geography of business groups, with Luisa Gagliardi (Bocconi), Jérémy Laurent-Lucchetti, (GSEM), and Grigorios Spanos (GSEM). Dormant (2022). [Slides]
  • Household sorting in the city, with Kristian Behrens (UQAM) and Gilles Duranton (Wharton). Dormant (2013). [Slides]
  • On the heterogeneous effect of trade on unemployment, with Céline Carrère (GSEM), Marco Fugazza (UNCTAD), and Marcelo Olarreaga (GSEM). CEPR dp  11540 (September 2016). This paper has morphed into our EER paper.
  • ​​Trade in unemployment, with Céline Carrère, Marco Fugazza, and Marcelo Olarreaga. CEPR dp 9916. May 2014. This paper has morphed into our 2020 EER paper.
  • Are cities too small? Equilibrium and optimal urban systems with heterogeneous land, with Kristian Behrens (UQAM). January 2015. [Slides] This paper has morphed into the four-authored 2019 JUE paper with David Albouy and Nate Seegert.
  • Trade and towns: On the uneven effects of trade liberalization, with Marius Brülhart and Céline Carrère, December 2013. This is an old version of our 2018 JUE paper. 
The Impact of Natural Disasters on the Local Economy [in progress]
  • With Giacomo De Giorgi (GSEM) and Costanza Naguib (Bern)
  • We study the impact of natural disasters on US ZIP-code wages, employment, population, and House Price Index.

Non-technical and newspaper articles

Links to co-authors

(In alphabetic order)