The Choice of Technology and Economic Geography

Zhou, Haiwen (2021): The Choice of Technology and Economic Geography.

Abstract

Empirical evidence shows that firms located in regions with larger population size are on average larger and more productive. To explain this empirical observation, firms producing intermediate goods are assumed to choose their technologies with different levels of fixed and marginal costs. In this general equilibrium model of economic geography, intermediate good producers engage in oligopolistic competition. The model is tractable and leads to interesting and analytical results. An intermediate good producer in the region with a higher population produces a higher level of output and has a lower marginal cost of production regardless of the existence of regional trade. With regional trade, if a worker moves from the region with a lower number of workers to the region with a higher number of workers, intermediate good producers in both regions choose less advanced technologies.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Technology choice, economic geography, international trade, increasing returns, oligopoly
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D4 - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design > D43 - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection; F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F12 - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies ; Fragmentation; L - Industrial Organization > L1 - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance > L13 - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O14 - Industrialization ; Manufacturing and Service Industries ; Choice of Technology; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R12 - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity

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