Spatial Economics for Granular Settings
49 Pages Posted: 3 Jun 2020
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Spatial Economics for Granular Settings
Spatial Economics for Granular Settings
Date Written: May 2020
Abstract
We introduce a general-equilibrium model of a "granular" spatial economy populated by a finite number of people. Our quantitative model is designed for application to the growing body of fine spatial data used to study economic outcomes for regions, cities, and neighborhoods. Conventional approaches invoking the law of large numbers are ill-suited for such empirical settings. We evaluate quantitative spatial models' out-of-sample predictions using event studies of large office openings in New York City. Our granular framework improves upon the conventional continuum-of-individuals model, which perfectly fits the pre-event data but produces predictions uncorrelated with the observed changes in commuting flows.
Keywords: commuting, granularity, Gravity Equation, quantitative spatial economics
JEL Classification: C25, F16, R1, R13, R23
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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Spatial Economics for Granular Settings
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