Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP9433
Authors: Klaus Desmet; Ejaz Ghani; Stephen D. O'Connell; Esteban Rossi-Hansberg
Abstract: This paper studies the recent spatial development of India. Services, and to a lesser extent manufacturing, are increasingly concentrating in high-density clusters. This stands in contrast with the United States, where in the last decades services have tended to grow fastest in medium-density locations, such as Silicon Valley. India's experience is not common to all fast-growing developing economies. The spatial growth pattern of China looks more similar to that in the U.S. than to that of India. Our findings suggest that certain frictions are keeping medium-density places in India from growing faster.
Keywords: Economic Geography; India; Services; Spatial Development; Spatial Distribution of Economic Activity
JEL Codes: O1; O18; O53; R11; R12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| service sector in India (L80) | increasing spatial concentration (R12) |
| ICT advancements (L96) | service sector in India (L80) |
| agglomeration economies (R11) | spatial concentration of service sector (R32) |
| congestion costs (L91) | spatial concentration of service sector (R32) |
| medium-density locations in India (R23) | growth rates (O40) |
| high-density service clusters (R32) | growth (O40) |
| manufacturing sector in India (L60) | spatial concentration (R32) |