Working Paper: NBER ID: w22964
Authors: Juan Moreno-Cruz; M. Scott Taylor
Abstract: This paper sets out a simple spatial model of energy exploitation to ask how the location and productivity of energy resources affects the distribution of economic activity across geographic space. By combining elements from energy economics and economic geography we link the productivity of energy resources to the incentives for economic activity to agglomerate. We find a novel scaling law links the productivity of energy resources to population sizes, while rivers and roads effectively magnify productivity. We show how our theory's predictions concerning a single core, aggregate to predictions over regional landscapes and city size distributions at the country level.
Keywords: energy; agglomeration; economic geography
JEL Codes: N0; Q0; R0
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| increased spatial productivity (R32) | higher energy supplies (Q42) |
| higher energy supplies (Q42) | larger populations (J11) |
| increased spatial productivity (R32) | larger populations (J11) |
| favorable geography (R12) | energy productivity (E23) |
| energy productivity (E23) | economic activity (E20) |
| favorable geography (R12) | economic activity (E20) |