DP4356 What Explains the Location of Industry in Britain, 1871-1931
Author(s): | Nicholas Crafts, Abay Mulatu |
Publication Date: | April 2004 |
Keyword(s): | agglomeration economies, british manufacturing, industry location, transport costs |
JEL(s): | N23, O18, O52 |
Programme Areas: | International Macroeconomics |
Link to this Page: | cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=4356 |
Where transport costs were falling, were the new economic geography forces for industry agglomeration and dispersion at work in the movement of industry in pre-1931 Britain? This Paper examines the issue empirically using a general model that nests the Heckscher-Ohlin factor endowment with new economic geography models. The evidence suggests that while the former mainly drove the location of pre-1931 British industry, the scale economies aspect of the latter also played a role.