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Cited by 1,082Economic Growth and ProductivityCulture, Economy, and Development StudiesRegional Economics and Spatial Analysis

Human Capital and Regional Development *

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Gennaioli, Nicola, La Porta, Rafael, Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio, Shleifer, Andrei·2013·The Quarterly Journal of Economics
DOI 10.1093/qje/qjs050
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Abstract

We investigate the determinants of regional development using a newly constructed database of 1,569 subnational regions from 110 countries covering 74% of the world’s surface and 97% of its GDP. We combine the cross-regional analysis of geographic, institutional, cultural, and human capital determinants of regional development with an examination of productivity in several thousand establishments located in these regions. To organize the discussion, we present a new model of regional development that introduces into a standard migration framework elements of both the Lucas (1978) model of the allocation of talent between entrepreneurship and work, and the Lucas (1988) model of human capital externalities. The evidence points to the paramount importance of human capital in accounting for regional differences in development, but also suggests from model estimation and calibration that entrepreneurial inputs and possibly human capital externalities help understand the data.

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  • Using regional-level data within a country permits examination of differences among units comparable in fundamental institutional and cultural traits, avoiding unobserved country heterogeneity affecting cross-country analysis.

    “One advantage of using regional-level data within a country is that it permits us to examine differences among units that are comparable in some fundamental institutional and cultural traits. That is, it avoids the huge unobserved country heterogeneity affecting cross-country analysis (Di Liberto, 2008; and Gennaioli et al. , 2013).”

    From Banning mobile phones in schools: evidence from regional-level policies in Spain (2022) · cites this paper as Gennaioli et al., 2013

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Authors
Gennaioli, N., La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F., & Shleifer, A.
Affiliations
Bocconi University (IT)
Venue
The Quarterly Journal of Economics
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2012-11-18
Volume
128
Issue
1
Pages
105-164
ISSN
  • 0033-5533 (ISSN-L)
  • 1531-4650
DOI
10.1093/qje/qjs050
OpenAlex
W2067314032
Cited by
1,082
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 68 · 2025: 94 · 2024: 72 · 2023: 109 · 2022: 90 · 2021: 81 · 2020: 107 · 2019: 71 · 2018: 73 · 2017: 86 · 2016: 48 · 2015: 50 · 2014: 83 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 13
FWCI
133.23
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Quarterly Journal of Economics (publishedVersion)
  • Repositori digital de la UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Archivio istituzionale della Ricerca - Bocconi (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Growth and Productivity
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Culture, Economy, and Development Studies
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis
Keywords
human capital, regional development, subnational regions, regional productivity, entrepreneurship, human capital externalities, migration, talent allocation, Lucas model, institutional determinants, cultural factors, geographic determinants

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