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Productivity Spillovers among Knowledge Workers in Agglomerations: Evidence from GitHub

Author

Listed:
  • Lena Abou El-Komboz
  • Thomas A. Fackler
  • Moritz Goldbeck
  • Thomas Fackler

Abstract

Software engineering is prototypical of knowledge work in the digital economy and exhibits strong geographic concentration, with Silicon Valley as the epitome of a tech cluster. We investigate productivity effects of knowledge worker agglomeration. To overcome existing measurement challenges, we track individual contributions in software engineering projects between 2015 and 2021 on GitHub, the by far largest online code repository platform. Our findings demonstrate individual productivity increases by 2.8 percent with a ten percent increase in cluster size, the share of the software engineering community in a technology field located in the same city. Instrumental variable and dynamic estimation results suggest these productivity effects are causal. Productivity gains from cluster size growth are strongest for clusters hosting between 0.67 and 13.5% of a community. We observe a disproportionate activity increase in high-quality, large, and leisure projects and for co-located teams. Overall, software engineers benefit from productivity spillovers due to physical proximity to a large number of peers in their field.

Suggested Citation

  • Lena Abou El-Komboz & Thomas A. Fackler & Moritz Goldbeck & Thomas Fackler, 2024. "Productivity Spillovers among Knowledge Workers in Agglomerations: Evidence from GitHub," CESifo Working Paper Series 11277, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11277
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    high-skilled labor; geography; innovation; peer effects; collaboration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O36 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Open Innovation
    • R32 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Other Spatial Production and Pricing Analysis

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