IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/tvecsg/v111y2020i3p465-481.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mega Regions and Pandemics

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Adler
  • Richard Florida
  • Maxwell Hartt

Abstract

The ongoing COVID‐19 crisis has put the relationship between spatial structure and disease exposure into relief. Here, we propose that mega regions – clusters of metropolitan regions like the Acela Corridor in the United States are more exposed to diseases earlier in pandemics. We review standard accounts for the benefits and costs of locating in such regions before arguing that pandemic risk is higher there on average. We test this mega region exposure theory with a study of the US urban system. Our results indicate that American mega regions have born the early brunt of the disease, and that three mega regions are hotspots. From this standpoint, the extent more than the intensity of New York's urbanization may be implicated in its COVID‐19 experience. We conclude that early pandemic risk is a hitherto unrecognised diseconomy operating in mega regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Adler & Richard Florida & Maxwell Hartt, 2020. "Mega Regions and Pandemics," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 111(3), pages 465-481, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:tvecsg:v:111:y:2020:i:3:p:465-481
    DOI: 10.1111/tesg.12449
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12449
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/tesg.12449?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilles Duranton & Matthew A. Turner, 2012. "Urban Growth and Transportation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(4), pages 1407-1440.
    2. Benjamin Faber, 2014. "Trade Integration, Market Size, and Industrialization: Evidence from China's National Trunk Highway System," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(3), pages 1046-1070.
    3. Gabriel M Ahlfeldt & Arne Feddersen, 2018. "From periphery to core: measuring agglomeration effects using high-speed rail," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 355-390.
    4. Michael Storper & Thomas Kemeny & Taner Osman & Naji, Institutional Research Information Service Makarem, 2015. "The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies," Post-Print hal-01534293, HAL.
    5. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    6. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2006. "Regional wage and employment responses to market potential in the EU," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 573-594, September.
    7. David M. Cutler & Grant Miller, 2004. "The Role of Public Health Improvements in Health Advances: The 20th Century United States," NBER Working Papers 10511, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. H. Hanson, Gordon, 2005. "Market potential, increasing returns and geographic concentration," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 1-24, September.
    9. OTTAVIANO, Gianmarco I.P. & THISSE, Jacques-François, 2001. "On economic geography in economic theory: increasing returns and pecuniary externalities," LIDAM Reprints CORE 1506, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    10. Richard Florida & Tim Gulden & Charlotta Mellander, 2008. "The rise of the mega-region," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(3), pages 459-476.
    11. Leah Platt Boustan & Devin Bunten & Owen Hearey, 2013. "Urbanization in the United States, 1800-2000," Working Papers 2013-7, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    12. Charlotta Mellander & José Lobo & Kevin Stolarick & Zara Matheson, 2015. "Night-Time Light Data: A Good Proxy Measure for Economic Activity?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-18, October.
    13. Jeremy Proville & Daniel Zavala-Araiza & Gernot Wagner, 2017. "Night-time lights: A global, long term look at links to socio-economic trends," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-12, March.
    14. Edward L. Glaeser, 2007. "Do Regional Economies Need Regional Coordination?," Levine's Bibliography 321307000000000917, UCLA Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Robert Krzysztofik & Iwona Kantor-Pietraga & Tomasz Spórna, 2021. "Multidimensional Conditions of the First Wave of the COVID-19 Epidemic in the Trans-Industrial Region. An Example of the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
    2. Hassan, M. Kabir & Alshater, Muneer M. & Atayah, Osama F., 2021. "Twenty-nine years of the Journal of International Review of Economics and Finance: A scientometric overview (1992–2020)," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1106-1125.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yoshifumi Konishi & Akari Ono, 2024. "Do Winners Win More from Transport Megaprojects? Evidence from the Great Seto Bridges in Japan," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2024-003, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    2. Yoshifumi Konishi & Akari Ono, 2024. "Do Winners Win More from Transport Megaprojects? Evidence from the Great Seto Bridge in Japan," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2024-018, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    3. Yahong Liu & Daisheng Tang & Tao Bu & Xinyuan Wang, 2022. "The spatial employment effect of high-speed railway: quasi-natural experimental evidence from China," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(2), pages 333-359, October.
    4. Pierre-Philippe Combes, 2011. "The empirics of economic geography: how to draw policy implications?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 147(3), pages 567-592, September.
    5. Breinlich, Holger & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2014. "Regional Growth and Regional Decline," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 683-779, Elsevier.
    6. Liu, Jingyang & Yang, Haoran, 2023. "Income allocation and distribution along with high-speed rail development in China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    7. Stef Proost & Jacques-François Thisse, 2019. "What Can Be Learned from Spatial Economics?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(3), pages 575-643, September.
    8. Xiaoqian Liu & Han Li & Yongzhi Sun & Chang’an Wang, 2022. "High‐speed railway and urban productivity disparities," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 680-701, June.
    9. Blonigen, Bruce A. & Cristea, Anca D., 2015. "Air service and urban growth: Evidence from a quasi-natural policy experiment," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 128-146.
    10. Chang, Zheng & Zheng, Longfei, 2022. "High-speed rail and the spatial pattern of new firm births: Evidence from China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 373-386.
    11. Luisa Dörr & Stefanie Gäbler, 2020. "Does Highway Accessibility Influence Local Tax Factors? Evidence from German Municipalities," ifo Working Paper Series 321, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    12. repec:esx:essedp:729 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Firgo, Matthias, 2021. "The causal economic effects of Olympic Games on host regions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    14. Okamoto, Chigusa & Sato, Yasuhiro, 2021. "Impacts of high-speed rail construction on land prices in urban agglomerations: Evidence from Kyushu in Japan," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    15. Nicole Loumeau, 2021. "Capital Cities and Road Network Integration: Evidence from the U.S," KOF Working papers 21-498, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    16. Xie, Lin & Wang, Shaozhuang & Yan, Lingxiao, 2024. "Distributional effects of expressway access on rural entrepreneurial activities in China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    17. Burhan Can Karahasan & Firat Bilgel, 2018. "Economic Geography, Growth Dynamics and Human Capital Accumulation in Turkey: Evidence from Regional and Micro Data," Working Papers 1233, Economic Research Forum, revised 10 Oct 2018.
    18. Stephen J. Redding, 2010. "The Empirics Of New Economic Geography," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 297-311, February.
    19. Andrzej Cieślik & Bartłomiej Rokicki, 2016. "Individual wages and regional market potential," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 24(4), pages 661-682, October.
    20. Redding, Stephen J., 2016. "Goods trade, factor mobility and welfare," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 148-167.
    21. Reinhold Kosfeld & Hans-Friedrich Eckey, 2010. "Market access, regional price level and wage disparities: the German case," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 30(2), pages 105-128, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:tvecsg:v:111:y:2020:i:3:p:465-481. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0040-747X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.