Path Dependence through Agglomeration Spillovers: Evidence from the Beet Sugar Industry
81 Pages Posted: 17 Jun 2024
Date Written: September 17, 2024
Abstract
This paper presents evidence of path dependence in economic geography by investigating the agglomeration spillovers from US beet sugar factories, which attracted large-scale manufacturing facilities near farmlands. I identify runner-up locations for beet sugar plants from a historical trade journal to estimate the effects of plant openings. The results show that these plant openings had large and long-lasting effects on population and manufacturing activities over one hundred years. The agglomeration spillovers benefited industries not only directly linked through input-output linkages but also extended to broader, less related industries outside the production chain of agricultural processing.
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