Definition Matters: Metropolitan Areas and Agglomeration Economies in a Large Developing Country

46 Pages Posted: 11 Dec 2018

See all articles by Erik Maarten Bosker

Erik Maarten Bosker

University of Groningen; Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Department of Economics

Jane Park

World Bank

Mark Roberts

World Bank

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: December 2018

Abstract

A variety of approaches to delineate metropolitan areas have been developed. Systematic comparisons of these approaches in terms of the urban landscape that they generate are however few. This paper aims to fill this gap. The paper focuses on Indonesia and makes use of the availability of data on commuting flows, remotely-sensed nighttime lights, and spatially fine-grained population, to construct metropolitan areas using the different approaches that have been developed in the literature. The analysis finds that the maps and characteristics of Indonesia's urban landscape vary substantially, depending on the approach used. Moreover, combining information on the metro areas generated by the different approaches with detailed micro-data from Indonesia's national labor force survey, the paper shows that the estimated size of the agglomeration wage premium depends nontrivially on the approach used to define metropolitan areas.

Keywords: agglomeration economies, Indonesia, metro areas, urban definitions

JEL Classification: C21, O18, O47

Suggested Citation

Bosker, Erik Maarten and Park, Jane and Roberts, Mark, Definition Matters: Metropolitan Areas and Agglomeration Economies in a Large Developing Country (December 2018). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP13359, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3298761

Erik Maarten Bosker (Contact Author)

University of Groningen ( email )

P.O. Box 800
9700 AH Groningen, Groningen 9700 AV
Netherlands

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) - Department of Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

Jane Park

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Mark Roberts

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

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