Front Matter

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

The Economics of Urban Density

[Symposium: Productivity Advantages of Cities]

By Gilles Duranton and Diego Puga

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

Density boosts productivity and innovation, improves access to goods and services, reduces typical travel distances, encourages energy efficient construction and transport, and allows broader sharing of scarce urban amenities. However, density is also syn...

How Close Is Close? The Spatial Reach of Agglomeration Economies

[Symposium: Productivity Advantages of Cities]

By Stuart S. Rosenthal and William C. Strange

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

This paper considers the attenuation of agglomeration economies. Put another way: how close is close? The paper presents evidence of agglomeration effects operating at various levels of spatial aggregation, including the regional, metropolitan, and neighb...

Tech Clusters

[Symposium: Productivity Advantages of Cities]

By William R. Kerr and Frederic Robert-Nicoud

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

Tech clusters like Silicon Valley play a central role for modern innovation, business competitiveness, and economic performance. This paper reviews what constitutes a tech cluster, how they function internally, and the degree to which policy makers can pu...

Corporate Earnings: Facts and Fiction

[Symposium: Enron and Conflict of Interest]

By Baruch Lev

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2003

Manipulated earnings played a central role in the slew of corporate scandals which surfaced during the last three years. This article focuses on the vulnerability of earnings to manipulation by managers: it surveys the empirical record of manipulation, th...

Internal Mobility: The Greater Responsiveness of Foreign-Born to Economic Conditions

[Symposium: Productivity Advantages of Cities]

By Gaetano Basso and Giovanni Peri

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

In this article, we review the internal geographic mobility of immigrants and natives in the United States in the recent decades, with a focus on the period since 2000. We confirm a continuing secular decline in mobility already pointed out by the exist...

Using Place-Based Jobs Policies to Help Distressed Communities

[Symposium: Place-Based Policies]

By Timothy J. Bartik

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

Place-based jobs policies seek to create jobs in particular local labor markets. Such policies include business incentives provided by state and local governments, which cost almost 50 billion USD annually. The most persuasive rationale for these polici...

Place-Based Policies and Spatial Disparities across European Cities

[Symposium: Place-Based Policies]

By Maximilian v. Ehrlich and Henry G. Overman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

Spatial disparities in income levels and worklessness in the European Union are profound, persistent and may be widening. We describe disparities across metropolitan regions and discuss theories and empirical evidence that help us understand what causes t...

Urbanization in the Developing World: Too Early or Too Slow?

[Symposium: Cities in Developing Countries]

By J. Vernon Henderson and Matthew A. Turner

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

We describe patterns of urbanization in the developing world and the extent to which they differ from the developed world. We consider the extent to which urbanization in the developing world can be explained by conventional models of spatial equilibriu...

Urban-Rural Gaps in the Developing World: Does Internal Migration Offer Opportunities?

[Symposium: Cities in Developing Countries]

By David Lagakos

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

This article provides an overview of the growing literature on urban-rural gaps in the developing world. I begin with recent evidence on the size of the gaps as measured by consumption, income, and wages, and argue that the gaps are real rather than just ...

How You Can Work to Increase the Presence and Improve the Experience of Black, Latinx, and Native American People in the Economics Profession

By Amanda Bayer, Gary A. Hoover, and Ebonya Washington

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

Recently in economics there has been discussion of how to increase diversity in the profession and how to improve the work life of diverse peoples. We conducted surveys and interviews with Black, Latinx and Native American people. These groups have long b...

Facts and Myths about Misperceptions

By Brendan Nyhan

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

Misperceptions threaten to warp mass opinion and public policy on controversial issues in politics, science, and health. What explains the prevalence and persistence of these false and unsupported beliefs, which seem to be genuinely held by many people?...

Venture Capital's Role in Financing Innovation: What We Know and How Much We Still Need to Learn

By Josh Lerner and Ramana Nanda

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

Venture capital is associated with some of the most high-growth and influential firms in the world. Academics and practitioners have effectively articulated the strengths of the venture model. At the same time, venture capital financing also has real li...

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Timothy Taylor

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2020

Corporate Conflicts of Interest

[Symposium: Enron and Conflict of Interest]

By Joel S. Demski

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2003

This paper surveys conflicts of interest in the corporate governance arena, with emphasis on auditors, boards of directors, analysts and investment bankers, regulators, management, attorneys and investors. Enron provides a host of examples as well. I stre...

Contracts Between Art and Commerce

[Symposium: Cultural Economics]

By Richard E. Caves

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2003

Contract structures used in the arts and entertainment industries are central to understanding their economic organization. The structures spring from common bedrock traits of these industries--pervasive product differentiation, all costs sunk, consumers'...

Some Economics of Ticket Resale

[Symposium: Cultural Economics]

By Pascal Courty

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2003

A large number of brokers and scalpers resell a significant fraction of event tickets at substantial markups and they manage to do so despite the fact that promoters and ticketing agencies do not support resell for profits and often attempt to block secon...

Awards, Success and Aesthetic Quality in the Arts

[Symposium: Cultural Economics]

By Victor Ginsburgh

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2003

The role of experts is dramatically increasing in our societies, where sorting information about quality is becoming more and more difficult. This paper looks at expertise in the arts (movies, novels and musical interpretation) and shows that expert opini...

Indirect Liability for Copyright Infringement: Napster and Beyond

[Symposium: Cultural Economics]

By William Landes and Douglas Lichtman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2003

When individuals infringe copyright, they often use tools, services, and venues provided by other parties. An enduring legal question asks to what extent those other parties should be held liable for the resulting infringement. For example, should a firm ...

Health Care Costs: On the Rise Again

By Sherry Glied

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2003

Since 1999, health care costs have been growing faster than national income. This rapid growth has occurred as the ability of private and public purchasers to reduce service utilization and bargain for lower prices has fallen, insurers have recouped lost ...