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Working Paper Series

The Impact of Regional and Sectoral
Productivity Changes on the U.S.
Economy

WP 13-14R

Lorenzo Caliendo
Yale University
Esteban Rossi-Hansberg
Princeton University
Fernando Parro
Federal Reserve Board
Pierre-Daniel Sarte
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

This paper can be downloaded without charge from:
http://www.richmondfed.org/publications/

The Impact of Regional and Sectoral Productivity Changes
on the U.S. Economy
Lorenzo Caliendo
Yale University

Fernando Parro
Federal Reserve Board

Esteban Rossi-Hansberg
Princeton University

Pierre-Daniel Sarte
FRB Richmond

November 26, 2014
Working Paper No. 13-14R
Abstract
We study the impact of intersectoral and interregional trade linkages in propagating disaggregated
productivity changes to the rest of the economy. Using regional and industry data we obtain the aggregate, regional and sectoral elasticities of measured TFP, GDP, and employment to regional and sectoral
productivity changes. We …nd that the elasticities vary signi…cantly depending on the sectors and regions
a¤ected and are importantly determined by the spatial structure of the economy. We use these elasticities
to perform a variety of counterfactual exercises including a detailed study of the e¤ects of the boom in
the Computers and Electronics industry in California.

1. INTRODUCTION
Fluctuations in aggregate economic activity result from a wide variety of disaggregated phenomena. These
phenomena can re‡ect underlying changes that are sectoral in nature, such as process or product innovations,
or regional in nature, such as natural disasters or changes in local regulations. In other cases, fundamental
productivity changes are actually speci…c to a sector and a location: a large corporate bankruptcy or bailout.
The heterogeneity of these potential changes in productivity at the sectoral and regional levels implies that
the particular sectoral and regional composition of an economy is essential in determining their aggregate
impact. That is, regional trade, the presence of local factors such as land and structures, regional migration,
as well as input-output relationships between sectors, all determine the impact of a disaggregated sectoral
or regional productivity change on aggregate outcomes. In this paper, we present a model of the sectoral
and regional composition of the U.S. economy and use it to measure the elasticity of aggregate measured
productivity, output, and welfare, to disaggregated fundamental productivity changes.
Correspondence:
Caliendo:
lorenzo.caliendo@yale.edu,
Parro:
fernando.j.parro@frb.gov,
Rossi-Hansberg:
erossi@princeton.edu, and Sarte: pierre.sarte@rich.frb.org. We thank Treb Allen, Costas Arkolakis, Arnaud Costinot,
Dave Donaldson, Jonathan Eaton, Gene Grossman, Tom Holmes, Miklos Koren, Samuel Kortum, Peter Schott, Steve Redding,
Richard Rogerson, Harald Uhlig, Kei-Mu Yi and many seminar participants for useful conversations and comments. We thank
Robert Sharp and Jonathon Lecznar for excellent research assistance. The views expressed in this paper are those of the
authors and do not necessarily re‡ect those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the Federal Reserve Board, or the
Federal Reserve System.

The major part of research in macroeconomics has traditionally emphasized aggregate disturbances as
sources of aggregate changes.1 Exceptions to this approach were Long and Plosser (1983), and Horvath
(1998, 2000) who posited that because of input-output linkages, productivity disturbances at the level of an
individual sector would propagate throughout the economy in a way that led to notable aggregate movements.2 More recently, a series of papers has characterized and veri…ed empirically the condition under
which sector and …rm level disturbances can have aggregate consequences.3 We follow this strand of the
literature, but note that to this point, the literature studying the aggregate implications of disaggregated
productivity disturbances has largely abstracted from the regional composition of sectoral activity. Our contribution is to integrate sectoral production linkages with those that arise by way of trade across space. The
resulting framework allows for the analysis, by way of region-speci…c production structures where inputs are
traded across regions, of more granular disturbances that may vary at the level of a sector within a region.
Regional considerations, therefore, become key in explaining the aggregate, sectoral, and regional e¤ects of
microeconomic disturbances.
The distribution of sectoral production across regions in the U.S. is far from uniform. Blanchard and
Katz (1992), and more recently Fogli, Hill and Perri (2012), provide empirical evidence that factors related
to geography, such as labor mobility across states, matter importantly for macroeconomic adjustments to
disturbances. Furthermore, because inputs must be traded across space when production varies geographically, trade costs also play a role in determining macroeconomic allocations and welfare, consistent with
the …ndings of Fernald (1999), and Duranton, Morrow, and Turner (2014), on the economic relevance of
road networks. How then do geographical considerations play out in determining the e¤ects of disaggregated
productivity changes? What are the associated key mechanisms and what is their quantitative importance?
These are the issues that we take up in this paper.
The fact that di¤erent regions of the U.S. di¤er signi…cantly in what they produce has two important
implications. First, to the degree that economic activity involves a complex network of interactions between
sectors, these interactions take place over potentially large distances by way of regional trade, but trading
across distances is costly. Second, since sectoral production has to take place physically in some location,
it is then in‡uenced by a wide range of changing circumstances in that location, from changes in policies
a¤ecting the local regulatory environment or business taxes to natural disasters. Added to these regional
considerations is that some factors of production are …xed locally and unevenly distributed across space,
such as land and structures, while others are highly mobile, such as labor.4 For example, in the three months
following hurricane Katrina, estimates from the Current Population Survey indicate that the total population
of Louisiana fell by more than 6 percent, and only got back to its pre-Katrina trend six years later.
To study how these di¤erent aspects of economic geography in‡uence the e¤ects of disaggregated productivity disturbances, we develop a quantitative model of the U.S. economy broken down by regions and
sectors. In each sector and region, there are two factors of production, labor and a composite factor com1 This emphasis, for example, permeates the large Real Business Cycles literature that followed the seminal work of Kydland
and Prescott (1982).
2 See also Jovanovic (1987) who shows that strategic interactions among …rms or sectors can lead micro disturbances to
resemble aggregate factors.
3 Acemoglu, Carvalho, Ozdaglar, and Tahbaz-Salehi (2012) characterize the conditions under which the network structure
of production linkages e¤ectively ampli…es the impact of microeconomic shocks, and Ober…eld (2013) provides a theoretical
foundation for such a network structure. Even absent network e¤ects, Gabaix (2011) shows that granular disturbances do not
necessarily average out when the size distribution of …rms or sectors is su¢ ciently fat-tailed. Empirically, Foerster, Sarte, and
Watson (2011) …nd support for these various channels motivating the study of sectoral shocks, while Carvalho and Gabaix
(2013) …nd that idiosyncratic shocks can account for large swings in macroeconomic volatility, as exempli…ed by the “great
moderation” and its recent undoing.
4 See Kennan and Walker (2011) for a recent detailed empirical study of migration across U.S. states.

prising land and structures. As emphasized by Blanchard and Katz (1992), labor is allowed to move across
both regions and sectors. Land and structures can be used by any sector but are …xed locally. Sectors are
interconnected by way of input-output linkages but, in contrast to Long and Plosser (1983) and its ensuing
literature, shipping materials to sectors located in other regions is costly in a way that varies with distance.
Using data on pairwise trade ‡ows across states by industry, as well as other regional and industry data, we
calibrate the model and explore the regional, sectoral, and aggregate e¤ects of disaggregated productivity
changes. Speci…cally, for a given productivity change located within a particular sector and region, the model
delivers the e¤ects of this change on all sectors and regions in the economy.
We …nd that disaggregated productivity changes can have dramatically di¤erent implications depending
on the regions and sectors a¤ected. These e¤ects arise in part by way of endogenous changes in the pattern
of regional trade through a selection e¤ect that determines what types of goods are produced in which
regions. They also arise by way of labor migration towards regions that become more productive. When
such migration takes place, the in‡ow of workers strains local …xed factors in those regions and, therefore,
mitigates the direct e¤ects of any productivity increases.5 For example, the aggregate GDP elasticity of a
regional fundamental productivity increase in Florida is 0.89.6 In contrast, the aggregate GDP elasticity of
a regional fundamental productivity increase in New York state, which is of comparable employment size
relative to aggregate employment (6.1% versus 6.2%, respectively), is 1.6. Thus, the e¤ects of disaggregated
productivity changes depend in complex ways on the details of which sectors and regions are a¤ected, and
how these are linked through input-output and trade relationships to other sectors and regions.
These spatial e¤ects a¤ect signi…cantly the magnitude of the aggregate elasticity of sectoral shocks; for
example, failure to account for regional trade understates the aggregate GDP elasticity of an increase in
productivity in the Petroleum and Coal industry – the most spatially concentrated industry in the U.S.
economy–by about 10% but overstates it by 19% in the Transportation Equipment industry –an industry
that exhibits much less spatial concentration. Ultimately, regional trade linkages, and the fact that materials
produced in one region are potentially used as inputs far away, are essential in propagating productivity
changes spatially and across sectors. We emphasize this point, and the role of the elasticities we present,
through an application that describes how TFP gains in the Computers and Electronics industry in California,
over the period 2002-2007, a¤ected all other regions and sectors of the U.S. This particular case highlights
not only how these gains adversely a¤ected neighboring states competing in the same industry, but also how
other states geographically removed from California, and with virtually no production in Computers and
Electronics, nevertheless bene…ted through a change in the pattern of trade in other sectors.
Because U.S. economic activity is not distributed uniformly across regions, a full treatment of the e¤ects of
disaggregated disturbances cannot be carried out without an explicit modeling of regional trading patterns
in di¤erent industries. In that context, distance and other trade barriers play a key role in determining
allocations. Thus, we …nd that eliminating U.S. regional trading costs associated with distance would result
in aggregate TFP gains of approximately 50 percent, and in aggregate GDP gains on the order of 126
percent. These …gures are evidently signi…cant, and may be interpreted as upper bounds on the extent to
which advances in shipping and other transportation technology can eventually contribute to productivity
and value added. More importantly, they also represent a foundation for the role of economic geography in
5 In very extreme cases, regional productivity increases can even have negative e¤ects on aggregate GDP (although welfare
e¤ects are always positive). In our calibration this happens only for Hawaii (See Figure 8f).
6 To highlight the mechanisms at play, aggregate elasticities throughout the paper are normalized to abstract from e¤ects
arising simply from variations in state size. Thus, in a model without sectoral or trade linkages, the elasticity of aggregate TFP
with respect to a productivity change in a given state will be one for all states, rather than simply re‡ecting that state’s weight
in production.

the study of the macroeconomic implications of disaggregated disturbances.
Our framework builds on Eaton and Kortum (2002), and the growing international trade literature that
extends their model to multiple sectors7 . From a more regional perspective, two related papers, Redding
(2012), and Allen and Arkolakis (2013), study the implications of labor mobility for the welfare gains of
trade, but abstract from studying the role of sectoral linkages or from presenting a quantitative assessment
of the e¤ects of disaggregated fundamental productivity changes on U.S. aggregate measures of TFP, GDP, or
welfare. The geographic nature of our problem, namely the presence of labor mobility, local …xed factors, and
heterogeneous productivities, introduce a di¤erent set of mechanisms through which changes in fundamental
productivity a¤ect production across sectors and space relative to most studies in the literature.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The next subsection describes the composition of U.S.
economic activity. We make use of maps and …gures to show how economic activity varies across U.S. states
and sectors. Section 2 presents the quantitative model. Section 3 describes in detail how to compute and
aggregate measures of TFP, GDP, and welfare across di¤erent states and sectors, and shows how these
measures relate to fundamental productivity changes. Section 4 describes the data, shows how to carry out
counterfactuals, and how to calibrate the model to 50 U.S. states and 26 sectors. Section 5 quanti…es the
e¤ects of di¤erent disaggregated fundamental productivity changes. In particular, we measure the elasticity
of aggregate productivity and output to sectoral, regional, as well as sector and region speci…c productivity
changes. Section 6 decomposes the trade costs of moving goods across U.S. states into a geographic distance
component and other regional trade barriers. We then evaluate the importance of geographic distance for
aggregate measures of TFP, GDP, and welfare. Section 7 concludes.
1.1 The Composition of U.S. Economic Activity
Throughout the paper, we break down the U.S. economy into 50 U.S. states and 26 sectors pertaining
to the year 2007, our benchmark year. We motivate and describe in detail this particular breakdown in
Section 4. As shown in Figure 1a, shares of GDP vary greatly across states. In part, these di¤erences stem
from di¤erences in geographic size. However, as Figure 1a makes clear, di¤erences in geographic size are not
large enough to explain observed regional di¤erences in GDP. New York state’s share of GDP, for example, is
slightly larger than Texas’even though its geographic area is several times smaller. The remaining di¤erences
cannot be explained by any mobile factor such as labor, equipment, or other material inputs, since those just
follow other local characteristics. In fact, as illustrated in Figure 1b, the distribution of employment across
states, although not identical to that of GDP, matches it fairly closely. Why then do some regions produce
so much more than others and attract many more workers? The basic approach in this paper argues that
three local characteristics, namely total factor productivity, local factors, and access to products in other
states, are essential to the answer. Speci…cally, we postulate that changes to total factor productivity (TFP)
that are sectoral and regional in nature, or speci…c to an individual sector within a region, are fundamental
to understanding local and sectoral output changes. Furthermore, these changes have aggregate e¤ects that
are determined by their geographic and sectoral distribution.
One initial indication that di¤erent regions indeed experience di¤erent circumstances is presented in Figure
1c, which plots average annualized percentage changes in regional GDP across states for the period 20022007 (Section 4 describes in detail the disaggregated data and calculations that underlie aggregate regional
7 For instance Caliendo and Parro (2014), Caselli, Koren, Lisicky, and Tenreyro, (2012), Costinot, Donaldson, and Komunjer,
(2012), Levchenko and Zhang, (2012). Eaton and Kortum (2012) and Costinot and Rodriguez-Clare (2013) present surveys of
recent quantitative extensions of the Ricardian model of trade.

Fig. 1. Distribution of economic activity in the U.S.
a: Share of GDP by region (%, 2007)

b: Share of Employment by region (%, 2007)
NI

1177

0.5

115
OR

1115

1118

119

AI
SE

1157

118

1157

1198

1197

718

1179

1515

1181

1166

511

2
2

0.66

11.7

4.4

3.9

1.1

4.2

2.9

0.84

1.9

1.3

0.46

TN
AZ

119

111

119

111

0.2

0.56

2.1

3
AL

1.4

3.1

1.4

716

7.6

II
LL

117

116

517

0.45

117

c: Change in GDP (%, 2002 to 2007)

0.79

6.1

1.3

d: Change in Employment shares (%, 2002 to 2007)
NH

2.3

-0.36

8.6

4.4

4.1

2.2

5.3

2.9

3.8

0.95

2.6

3.1

2.4

1.8

5.5

4.5

2.8

0.67

0.71

0.01

3.1

-0.02

-0.47

-0.56

-0.78
KS

0.22

-1.42

-0.31

-0.79

-0.54

-1.14

-0.56

0.36

3.7

2.6

3.1

2.7

2.2

0.79

4.2

2.8

-0.82

0.87

-0.07

0.64
AL

0.29

0.74

-0.09

1
MS

0.2

4.7

1.4

MS
LA

-0.47

-0.77

changes in GDP). The …gure shows that annualized GDP growth rates vary across states in dramatic ways;
from 7.1 percent in Nevada, to 0.02 percent in Michigan. Of course, some of these changes re‡ect changes in
employment levels. Nevada’s employment relative to aggregate U.S. employment grew by 3.1 percent during
this period while that of Michigan declined by -1.97 percent. Figure 1d indicates that employment shares
also vary substantially over time, although somewhat less than GDP. The latter observation supports the
view that labor is a mobile factor, driven by changes in fundamentals, such as productivity.
While our discussion thus far has underscored overall economic activity across states, one may also consider
particular sectors. Doing so immediately reveals that the sectoral distribution of economic activity also varies
greatly across space. An extreme example is given by the Petroleum and Coal industry in Figure 2a. This
industry is manly concentrated in only 3 states, namely California, Louisiana, and Texas. In contrast,
Figure 2b presents GDP shares in the Wood and Paper industry, the most uniformly dispersed industry in
our sample. The geographic concentration of industries may, of course, be explained in terms of di¤erences
in local productivity or access to essential materials. In this paper, these sources of variation are re‡ected
in individual industry shares across states. For now, we simply make the point that variations in local
conditions are large, and that they are far from uniform across industries.
Figure 3a shows the sectoral concentration of economic activity while Figure 3b presents the Her…ndahl
index of GDP concentration across states for each industry in our study. Di¤erences in the spatial distribution

0.53
MD

-0.59

-0.54

-0.68

-0.67

-0.36

2.3

4.5
4.5

-0.74
OH

-0.93
0.55

MA
RI

-1.97

6
NV

0.37

-0.56

1.2

TX
HI

-0.14

-0.72

2.7

1.7

4.1
3.6

1.9

1.3

1.8

TN
AZ

2.7

3.1

RI
CT

2.8
OH

4.5

3.5

NE
NV

1.9

2.5

1.9

0.87

2.1

0.02

4.9
7.1

2.3

1.5

6.6

4.2

0.31

2.1

1.3

0.96

1157
NA

1.8

6.2
OH

0.93

0.35

1.1

2.5
RI

3.1

0.28

0.46

0.23

SD
WY

0.97
CA

1175

1111

1177

118

0.24

119

TN
OK

0.33

0.5

1111

117
NE

119

1.3

0.18

515

7
VL

1185

1155

515

118

8
AL

NE
NV

116

1115

1117

2.1

118

1116

115
IE

1157

1.5

Fig. 2. Sectoral concentration across regions (shares, 2007)
a: Petroleum and Coal

b: Wood and Paper
NI

2229

261

222
OR

2292

2222

227

22222

2224

22222

2226

429

2279

222

224

2242

2222

222

2616

162

2617

2226

166

161

261

662

169

VL
KY

2666

261

2667

267

2222

222

2229

2622

2691

161

166

2619
LL

666

669

2227

661

II
LL

229

222

2626

2929

161

266

Fig. 3. Economic activity across sectors in the U.S.
a: Sectoral
share, 2007)
Shareconcentration
of GDP by sector(GDP
(%, 2007)

b: Regional concentration (Her…ndahl, 2007)
0.16

20
18

0.14

16
0.12
14
0.1

0.08

10
8

0.06

6
0.04
4
0.02

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of economic activity for di¤erent sectors imply that sectoral disturbances of similar magnitudes will a¤ect
regions very di¤erently and, therefore, that their aggregate impact will vary as well. Hence, to assess the
implications of technological changes in di¤erent sectors, one needs to be cognizant of how these changes are
…ltered through the regional economy. Studying this process and its quantitative implications is the main
purpose of this paper.
An important channel through which the geographic distribution of economic activity, and its breakdown
across sectors, a¤ects the impact of changes in total factor productivity relates to interregional trade. Trade
implies that disturbances to a particular location will a¤ect prices in other locations and thus consumption

2666
EE

2667

666

2229

2222

2611

2621

2662

266

NE
TT

2611

761

2627

262

2622

161

2626

EI
AI

2666

2227

2222

2611

2222

2294

169

2222

TN
NE

2292

2226
OK

2222

2222
VL

222

2267

2422

2242

NE
TT

2227

2229
2222

2224

2227

2222

2292

2222

2229

and, through input-output linkages, production in other locations. This channel has been studied widely
with respect to trade across countries but much less with respect to trade across regions within a country.
That is, we know little about the propagation of local productivity changes across regions within a country
through the channel of interregional trade, when we take into account that people move across states. This
is perhaps surprising given that trade is considerably more important within than across countries. Table 1
presents U.S. imports and exports as a percentage of GDP in 2007. Overall, trade across regions amounts
to about two thirds of the economy and it is more than twice as large as international trade. This evidence
underscores the need to incorporate regional trade in the analysis of the e¤ects of productivity changes, as
we do here.
Table 1. : Importance of Regional Trade
U.S. trade as a share of GDP (%, 2007)
Exports Imports Total
International trade
11.9
17.0
28.9
Interregional trade
33.4
33.4
66.8
S o u rc e : W o rld D e ve lo p m e nt in d ic a to rs a n d C F S

While interregional trade and input-output linkages have the potential to amplify and propagate technological changes, they do not generate them. Furthermore, if all disturbances were only aggregate in nature,
regional and sectoral channels would play no role in explaining aggregate changes.
Figure 4a shows that annualized changes in sectoral measured TFP vary dramatically across sectors, from
14 percent per year in the Computer and Electronics industry to a decline in measured productivity of
more than 2 percent in Construction. We describe in detail the data and assumptions needed to arrive at
disaggregated measures of productivity by sector and region in Section 4. In that section, we underscore the
distinction between fundamental productivity and the calculation of measured productivity that includes the
e¤ect of trade and sectoral linkages. In fact, the structure of the model driving our analysis helps precisely
in understanding how changes in fundamental productivity a¤ect measured productivity.8
Figure 4b presents the contribution of sectoral changes in measured TFP to aggregate TFP changes. The
distinction between Figures 4a and 4b re‡ects the importance or weight of di¤erent sectors in aggregate
productivity. Once more, the heterogeneity across sectors is surprising. Moreover, this heterogeneity implies
that changes in a particular sector will have very distinct e¤ects on aggregate productivity, even conditional
on the size of the changes.
Variations in TFP across sectors have received considerable attention in the macroeconomics literature (see
Foerster et al., 2011, Gabaix, 2011, and Acemoglu, et al., 2012, among others). In contrast, this literature has
paid virtually no attention to the regional composition of TFP changes. Figures 5a and b shows that this lack
of attention is potentially misguided. Changes in measured TFP vary widely across regions. Furthermore,
the contribution of regional changes in measured TFP to variations in aggregate TFP is also very large. The
di¤erence between Figures 5a and 5b re‡ects the weight of di¤erent states in aggregate productivity.
The change in TFP over the period 2002-2007 was 1.4 percent per year in Nevada but 1.1 percent in
Michigan. These di¤erences in TFP experiences naturally contributed to di¤erences in employment and GDP
8 Regional measures of TFP at the state level are not directly available from a statistical agency. As explained in Section 4,
our calculations of disaggregated TFP changes rely on other information directly observable by region and sector, such as value
added or gross output calculated from trade ‡ows, as well as on unobserved information inferred using equilibrium relationships
consistent with the model presented in Section 2. Importantly, our measures of disaggregated TFP changes sum up to the
aggregate TFP change for the same period directly available from the OECD productivity database.

Fig. 4. Sectoral measured TFP of the U.S. economy from 2002 to 2007
a: Change
ininsectoral
TFP
a. Change
sectoral TFP
(%)(%)

b: Sectoral
contribution
changeinin
aggregate
b. Sectoral
contributiontotothe
the change
aggregate
TFP TFP
(%) (%)
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-10

changes in those states. More generally, variations across states result in part from sectoral productivity
changes as well as changes in the distribution of sectors across space which, as we have argued, is far from
uniform. However, even if all the variation in Figures 5a and b were ultimately traced back to sectoral
changes, their uneven regional composition would in‡uence their impact on trade and, ultimately, aggregate
TFP.
Fig. 5. Regional measured TFP of the U.S. economy from 2002 to 2007
a: Change in TFP by regions (%)

b: Regional contribution to the change in aggregate TFP (%)
NH

0.83

0.35

2.5

1.03

1.2

1.9

1.1

OH
IL

0.77

1.2

0.65

1.3

0.81

1.4

1.04

1.3

0.38

1.7

-0.07

0.005

2.7

0.19

0.2

1.01

0.55

15.5

0.67

3.7

0.83

1.03

3.3

1.8

1.2

3.2

1.1

2.6

0.97

0.59

0.94

0.001

0.82

1.02

1.2

1.3

0.04

-0.03

2.2

3.1
AL

1.1

1.7

1.2

12.3
MS

0.91

3.1

1.5

1.1

0.95

0.12

MS
LA

0.79

1.5

One of the key economic determinants of income across regions is the stock of land and structures. To
our knowledge, there is no direct measure of this variable. However, as we explain in detail in Section 4, we
can use the equilibrium conditions from our model to infer the regional distribution of income from land and
8

0.84
MD

1.04

1.3

1.9
0.36

6.1

0.05

2.2

0.01
NV

3.9

0.44

1.9

0.42

2.1

0.1

TX
HI

0.07

0.62

1.1

0.14

1.8
1.1

1.2

0.58

0.44

TN
AZ

0.88

1.2

RI
CT

0.85

NE
NV

1.1

1.7

2.1

0.73

2.1

1.1

0.11
1.4

1.1

0.23

1.9

1.1

4.2

structures across U.S. states. Figure 6 shows that per capita income from land and structures in 2007 U.S.
dollars varies considerably across states. The range varies from a low of 10,200 and 13,000 dollars per capita
for the case of Vermont and Wisconsin respectively, to a high of 47,000 dollars in Delaware. We will argue
that this regional dispersion of land and structures across regions in the U.S. is central to understanding the
aggregate e¤ects of disaggregated fundamental productivity changes.
Fig. 6. Per capita regional rent from land and structures (10,000 of 2007 U.S. dollars)
NH

1.3
WA

2.4
OR

2.1

1.6

1.5

2.3
2

1.6

1.7

1.9

2.2

1.6

1.9
OK

1.5

4.7
1.8
WV

1.4

TN
AZ

1.8

1.5

1.8

2.7

1.5

2.5

VA
KY

2.2
OH

2.2

1.9

NE
NV

1.3

1.7

1.02

1.6

1.5

1.6

1.3

2
AL

1.5

2.1

1.6

2
MS

1.3

1.8

2.8

1.5

2. THE MODEL
Our goal is to produce a quantitative model of the U.S. economy disaggregated across regions and sectors.
For this purpose, we develop a static two factor model with N regions and J sectors. We denote a particular
region by n 2 f1; :::; N g (or i), and a particular sector by j 2 f1; :::; Jg (or k): The economy has two factors,

labor and a composite factor comprising land and structures. Labor can freely move across regions and
sectors. Land and structures, Hn , are a …xed endowment of each region but can be used by any sector. We
denote total population size by L, and the population in each region by Ln : A given sector may be either
tradable, in which case goods from that sector may be traded at a cost across regions, or non-tradable.
Throughout the paper, we abstract from international trade and other international economic interactions.
2.1 Consumers
Agents in each location n 2 f1; :::; N g order consumption baskets according to Cobb-Douglas preferences,

, over their consumption of …nal domestic goods, cjn ; bought at prices, Pnj , in all sectors
PJ
j 2 f1; :::; Jg. Preferences are homothetic of degree one, so j=1 j = 1:

with shares,

Agents supply one unit of labor inelastically and receive the return to local factors. We assume that a

fraction

2 [0; 1] of the local factor is part of a national portfolio of local assets. All residents hold an equal

number of shares in that portfolio and so receive the same proportion of its returns. The remaining share,
(1

n ),

of local factors is owned by the local government in region n. The returns to this fraction of the

local factors is distributed lump-sum to all local residents. This ownership structure of local factors result
in a model that is ‡exible enough (through the determination of

to match almost exactly observed trade

imbalances across states (see Section 4). It allows individuals living in certain states to receive higher returns
from local factors but avoids the complications of individual wealth e¤ects, and the resulting heterogeneity

across individuals, that result from individual holdings of local assets. We refer to 1

as the share of

local rents from land and structures.
The income of an agent residing in region n is
In = wn +

+ (1

rn Hn
;
Ln

where wn is the wage and rn is the rental rate of structures and land, and rn Hn =Ln , is the per capita income
from renting land and structures to …rms in region n. The term

represents the return per person from the

national portfolio of land and structures from all regions. In particular,
=
The last term, (1

n ) rn Hn =Ln ,

i=1 i ri Hi

i=1

denotes the rents on land and structures distributed locally by the gov-

ernment. Thus, total income in region n is
Ln In = wn Ln + rn Hn
where

n rn Hn

(1)

Ln is a measure of regional trade imbalance that emerges from interregional transfers

implied by the national portfolio of …xed assets.9
The problem of an agent in region n is then given by
vn

max
J
fcjn gj=1

j=1

cjn

; subject to

j=1

Pnj cjn = In :

It follows that total demand of …nal good j in region n is
Ln cjn =

Ln In
Pnj

(2)

Agents move freely across regions. From the household problem, the value of locating in a particular
region n is
vn =
where Pn =

j=1

Pnj =

wn +

+ (1

rn H n
Ln

;

is the ideal price index in region n: In equilibrium, households are indi¤erent

between living in any region so that
vn =

In
=U
Pn

(3)

for all n 2 f1; :::; N g ; for some U determined in equilibrium.
9 An alternative option is to allow some immobile agents in each state to own state-speci…c shares of a national portfolio
P
that includes all the rents of the immobile factor (namely = i ri Hi ). As long as these shares sum to one, and the rentiers
cannot move, such a model is as tractable as the one we propose in the main text. The allocation of such a model is also
e¢ cient as long as the constraint on the mobility of rentiers is not binding in equilibrium. We have computed our main results
with this alternative model and …nd very similar results. For example, the correlation of the elasticities of aggregate TFP and
real GDP to regional fundamental productivity changes between the model we propose and this alternative model is 95.2%
and 95.1%, respectively. Ultimately, although not particular important given these numbers, the choice between having some
local distribution of rents, or some immobile agents that own all the shares in the national portfolio, involves choosing between
similar, albeit perhaps not ideal, simplifying assumptions.

2.2 Technology
Sectoral …nal goods are used for consumption and as material inputs into the production of intermediate
goods in all industries. In each sector, …nal goods are produced using a continuum of varieties of intermediate goods in that sector. We refer to the intermediate goods used in the production of …nal goods as
‘intermediates,’and to the …nal goods used as inputs in the production of intermediate goods as ‘materials.’
2.2.1 Intermediate Goods
Representative …rms, in each region n and sector j; produce a continuum of varieties of intermediate goods
that di¤er in their idiosyncratic productivity level, znj .10 In each region and sector, this productivity level is
j

a random draw from a Fréchet distribution with shape parameter

and location parameter 1. Note that

varies only across sectors. We assume that all draws are independent across goods, sectors, and regions. The
productivity of all …rms producing varieties in a region-sector pair (n; j) is also determined by a deterministic
productivity level, Tnj , speci…c to that region and sector. We refer to Tnj as fundamental productivity. The
production function for a variety associated with idiosyncratic productivity znj in (n; j) is given by
h
qnj (znj ) = znj Tnj hjn (znj )

lnj (znj )

j
n

Mnjk (znj )

k=1

jk
n

;

(4)

where hjn ( ) and lnj ( ) denote the demand for structures and labor respectively, Mnjk ( ) is the demand for
…nal material inputs by …rms in sector j from sector k (variables representing …nal goods are denoted with
capital letters),

jk
n

> 0 is the share of sector j goods spent on materials from sector k; and

j
n

> 0 is the

share of value added in gross output. We assume that the production function has constant returns to scale,
PJ
j
j
jk
n : Observe that Tn scales value added and not gross output. This feature ensures that an
k=1 n = 1
increase in Tnj ; for all j and n; has a proportional e¤ect on aggregate real GDP.
The unit cost of producing varieties with draw znj in (n; j) is given by
min

fhjn (znj );lnj (znj );Mnjk (znj )gk=1
subject to

h
znj Tnj hjn (znj )

wn lnj (znj ) + rn hjn (znj ) +

lnj (znj )

j
n

k=1

Pnk Mnjk (znj );

Mnjk (znj )

jk
n

= 1;

where Pnk is the price of …nal goods in industry k in region n: Let xjn denote the cost of the input bundle
needed to produce intermediate good varieties in (n; j) : Then
xjn = Bnj rnn wn1
where

h
Bnj = [1

(

[

j
n

k=1

j
n

Pnk

k=1

jk
n

;

(5)

jk
n

1 0 In a parallel extension of Eaton and Kortum (2002), in each sector within a region, each variety that is used by …rms in
production within that sector and region is associated with an idiosyncratic productivity level. Since technology is constantreturns-to-scale (CRS), the number of …rms producing any given variety is indeterminate and irrelevant for the equilibrium
allocation. Hence, throughout the analysis, we work with …rms, or representative …rms, that produce di¤erent varieties of a
sectoral good within a region.

The unit cost of an intermediate good with idiosyncratic draw znj in region-sector pair (n; j) is then given by
xjn
h i
znj Tnj

j
n

(6)

Firms located in region n and operating in sector j will be motivated to produce the variety whose productivity draw is znj as long as its price matches or exceeds xjn =znj Tnj

j
n

. Assuming a competitive market for

intermediate goods, …rms that produce a given variety in (n; j) will price it according to its corresponding
unit cost, given by Equation (6).
Let pjn (z j ) represent the equilibrium price of a variety for which the vector of idiosyncratic productivity
j
): The determination of this price in equilibrium is
draws in all N regions is given by z j = (z1j ; z2j ; :::zN

discussed in detail below. Since the production function is Cobb-Douglas, pro…t maximization implies that
input demands, hjn (znj ); lnj (znj ); and Mnjk (znj ) for all k, satisfy11

hjn (znj )rn
j
pn (z j )qnj (znj )
lnj (znj )wn
pjn (z j )qnj (znj )
Pnk Mnjk (znj )
pjn (z j )qnj (znj )

j
n n;

j
n

jk
n :

(7)

n) ;

(8)
(9)

2.2.2 Final Goods
Final goods in region n and sector j are produced by combining intermediate goods in sector j: Denote
the quantity of …nal goods in (n; j) by Qjn , and denote by q~nj (z j ) the quantity demanded of an intermediate
good of a given variety such that, for that variety, the particular vector of productivity draws received by
j
the di¤erent n regions is z j = (z1j ; z2j ; :::zN
). The production of …nal goods is given by

Qjn
j

n P
N

znj
n
densities given by jn (znj ) = exp
where

(z j ) = exp

only relevant density is

n=1

j
n

=
j

q~nj (z j )1 1=

j
n

j
n=

(

j
n

;

(10)

denotes the joint density function for the vector z j , with marginal
jo
znj
, and the integral is over RN
+ . For non-tradeable sectors, the

znj since …nal good producers use only locally produced goods.

Producers of composite sectoral goods then solve
max Pnj Qjn
j
fq~n (zj )gRN
+

pjn (z j )~
qnj (z j )

z j dz j :

1 1 Factor demands are evidently also a function of the price, although we do not acknowledge this fact explicity to ease
notation.

where pjn (z j ) denotes the price of intermediate goods. Then, the demand function is given by
q~nj (z j )

j
n

pjn (z j )

Qjn ;

Pnj

where Pnj is a price index for sector j in region n;
Z

Pnj =

j
n

pjn (z j )1

j
n

1=(1

z j dz j

)
:

There is free entry in the production of …nal goods with competition implying zero pro…ts.
2.3 Prices and Market Clearing
Final goods are non-tradable. Intermediate goods in tradable sectors are costly to trade. One unit of any
intermediate good in sector j shipped from region i to region n requires producing
j
nn

= 1 and, for intermediate goods in non-tradable sectors,

j
ni

1 units in i, with

= 1. Thus, the price paid for a particular

variety whose vector of productivity draws is z j , pjn (z j ), is given by the minimum of the unit costs across
locations, adjusted by the transport costs

j
ni :

That is,

pjn z j = min
i

8
>
>
<

j
j
ni xi

h i
>
>
: zij Tij

j
i

9
>
>
=
>
>
;

(11)

Given our assumptions governing the distribution of idiosyncratic productivities, zij , we follow Eaton and
Kortum (2002) to solve for the distribution of prices. Having solved for the distribution of prices, when
sector j is tradeable, the price of …nal good j in region n is given by
Pnj
where

j
n

j 1
n

XN h j
xi
i=1

j
n

is a Gamma function evaluated at

j
ni

= 1+ 1

h i
Tij
j
n

j
i

;

(12)

= j : When j denotes a non-tradeable

sector, the price index is instead given by
j
n

j 1
n

Pnj =

xjn Tnj

j
n

(13)

Regional labor market clearing requires that
XJ

j=1

Ljn =

j=1

lnj (z)

j
n

(z) dz = Ln , for all n 2 f1; :::; N g ;

where Ljn denote the number of workers in (n; j) ; and national labor market clearing is given by
XN

n=1

Ln = L:

(14)

In a regional equilibrium, land and structures must satisfy
XJ

j=1

Hnj

j=1

j
n

hjn (z)

(z) dz = Hn , for all n 2 f1; :::; N g ;

(15)

where Hnj denotes land and structure use in (n; j) :
Pro…t maximization by intermediate goods producers, together with these equilibrium conditions, implies
that
rn Hn =
Then, de…ning ! n

[rn =

[wn =(1

n
(1
n )]

wn Ln ; for all n 2 f1; :::; N g :
n)

; free mobility gives us
1
n

!n
Pn U

Ln = Hn

;

which, combined with the labor market clearing condition, yields an expression for labor input in region n,
Hn
Ln = X
N

i=1

!n
Pn U

i1=

!i
Pi U

i1= i L:

(16)

It remains to describe market clearing in …nal and intermediate goods markets. Regional market clearing
in …nal goods is given by
Ln cjn +

k=1

Mnkj = Ln cjn +

k=1

Mnkj (z)

k
n

(z) dz = Qjn ;

(17)

for all j 2 f1; :::; Jg and n 2 f1; :::; N g : where Mnkj represents the use of intermediates of sector j in sector

k at n.

Let Xnj denote total expenditures on …nal good j in region n (or total revenue). Then, regional market
clearing in …nal goods implies that
Xnj =
where

j
ni

k=1

kj
n

i=1

k
k
in Xi

In Ln ;

(18)

denotes the share of region n’s total expenditures on sector j’s intermediate goods purchased

from region i. As in Eaton and Kortum (2002), and Alvarez and Lucas (2007), it is convenient to de…ne
an equilibrium in the intermediate goods market, and their associated trade ‡ows, in terms of trade and
expenditure shares, rather than the ‡ows and expenditures related to individual varieties. De…ne
2

6
j
Xni
= Pr 6
4

j
j
ni xi

h i
zij Tij

min

j
i

m6=i

j
j
7 j
nm xm 7
h i jm 5 Xn ;
j
j
zm
Tm

and recall that, because of zero pro…ts in …nal goods sectors, total expenditures on intermediate goods in
a given sector exhaust total revenue from …nal goods in that sector. Then, given properties of the Fréchet

distribution, equilibrium in the intermediate goods market implies that

j
ni

In non-tradable sectors,

j
ni

j
Xni

Xnj

B
=B
@

j
n

j 1
n

= 1 for all n f1; :::; N g so that

j
j
ni xi

Tij

j
nn

j
i

Pnj

C
C
A

(19)

= 1:

In equilibrium, in any region n, total expenditures on intermediates purchased from other regions must
equal total revenue from intermediates sold to other regions, formally,
XJ

j=1

i=1

j
j
ni Xn

j=1

i=1

j
j
in Xi :

(20)

Trade is, in general, not balanced within each region since a particular region can be a net recipient of national
returns on land and structures while another might be a net contributor. As such, our model, through its
ownership structure, presents a theory of trade imbalances and how these imbalances are a¤ected by changes
in fundamental productivity. In Section 4 we explain how to use information on regional trade imbalances
N

to estimate the parameters that determine the ownership structure, f n gn=1 .
Given factor supplies, L and

N
fHn gn=1

; a competitive equilibrium for this economy is a utility level U; a
N

set of factor prices in each region, frn ; wn gn=1 , a set of labor allocations, structure allocations, …nal good

expenditures, consumption of …nal goods per person, and …nal goods prices,
N;J;J
; regional
n=1;j=1;k=1
n oN;N;J
j
sector,
ni
n=1;i=1;j=1

Ljn ; Hnj ; Xnj ; cjn ; Pnj
N
n gn=1

N;J
,
n=1;j=1

pairwise sectoral material use in every region, Mnjk

transfers f

regional intermediate expenditure shares in every

; such that the optimization con-

; and pairwise

ditions for consumers and intermediate and …nal goods producers hold, all markets clear - equations (14),
(15), (18), (19) hold -, aggregate trade is balanced - (20) holds- , and utility is equalized across regions, (16) holds.
3. AGGREGATION AND CHANGES IN MEASURED TFP, GDP, AND WELFARE
Given the model we have just laid out, this section describes how to arrive at measures of total factor
productivity, GDP, and welfare, that are disaggregated across both regions and sectors. These calculations
of measures at the level of sector in a region, using available industry and regional trade data for the U.S.,
underlie Figures 1 through 8 and their discussion in Section 1.1, as well as all calculations in the rest of the
paper.
3.1 Measured TFP
Measured sectoral total factor productivity in a region-sector pair (n; j) is commonly calculated as

ln Ajn

= ln

wn Ljn + rn Hnj +
Pnj

k=1

Pnk Mnjk

j
n

ln Ljn

j
n n

ln Hnj

k=1

jk
n

ln Mnjk :

(21)

The …rst term is gross output revenue over price –a measure of gross production in (n; j) which we denote
by Ynj =Pnj ; and which is equal to Qjn in the case of non-tradables–, while the last three terms denote the log

of the aggregate input bundle.12 This last equation assumes that we use gross output and …nal good prices
to calculate region-sector TFP. Observe that (7), (8), and (9) imply that
Ynj = wn Ljn + rn Hnj +

k=1

wn Ljn

Pnk Mnjk =

j
n

(22)

Therefore, we may calculate changes in measured TFP, A^jn , following a change in fundamental productivity,
Tbnj , using the ratio of the change in the cost of the input bundle to the change in the price of …nal goods.13
That is,

ln A^jn = ln

x
bjn
P^nj

= ln

T^nj

^ jnn

j
n

;

(23)

where the second equality follows from (19). Equation (23) is central to understanding the sources of
changes in measured productivity in an individual sector within a region following a change in fundamental
productivity, T^nj :
Consider …rst an economy with in…nite trading costs
j
nn

j
ni

= 1 for all j; so that trade is non-operative and

= 1 in every region. Furthermore, let us abstract from material input use so that the share of value

added in gross output is equal to one,

j
n

= 1: In such an economy, which we abbreviate with the letters

“NRNS” for “no regional trade and no sectoral linkages,” Equation (23) implies that changes in measured
productivity A^jn are identical to changes in fundamental productivity, T^nj . Any fundamental productivity
change at the level of a sector within a region translates into an identical change in measured productivity
in that sector and region, and has otherwise no e¤ect on any other sectors or regions.
This exact relationship between fundamental and measured productivity, ln A^jn = ln T^nj , no longer holds
once either trade or sectoral linkages are operative. Consider …rst adding sectoral linkages, so that

j
n

< 1,

but still abstracting from trade (labeled “NRS” for “no regional trade but with sectoral linkages”). In
that case, Equation (23) indicates that the e¤ect of a change, T^nj , improves measured productivity less than
proportionally. The reason is that the change a¤ects the productivity of value added in that region and sector
but not the productivity of sectors and regions in which materials are produced. Therefore, in the presence
of input output linkages, the e¤ect of a fundamental productivity change T^nj on measured productivity in
PJ
j
jk
(n; j) falls with 1
n =
k=1 n .

This last result follows from our assumption that productivity changes scale value added and not gross

output (as in Acemoglu et al. 2012). If productivity instead a¤ected all of gross output, a sector that
just processed materials, without adding any value by way of labor or capital, would see an increase in
output at no cost. That alternative modelling implies that aggregate fundamental productivity changes
have abnormally large e¤ects on real GDP while, with our technological assumption, aggregate fundamental
changes have proportional e¤ects on real GDP. This distinction matters greatly in quantitative exercises.
Evidently, with trade still shut down, a region and sector speci…c change in an NRS economy has no e¤ect
1 2 One can prove that total gross output in (n; j) uses this aggregate input bundle. To do so, aggregate Equations (7), (8)
and (9). Using these equations, it is straightforward to derive that factor usage for an intermediate is just the revenue share of
that intermediate in gross revenue, Ynj : Substituting in Equation (4), and using the fact that prices of produced intermediates
are equal to unit costs, leads to

Ynj
Pnj

xjn h

Pnj

j
Hn

Ljn

j
n

k=1

Mnjk

jk
n

;

where Ajn = xjn =Pnj measures region and sector speci…c TFP.
1 3 The ‘hat’notation denotes A0 =A, where A0 is the new level of total factor productivity.

on the measured productivity of any other region or sector. In contrast, with trade, productivity changes
are propagated across sectors and regions. The main e¤ect of regional trade on productivity arises by way of
j
ni

be …nite for tradable sectors, and consider …rst the region-sector (n; j) that
experiences a change or increase in fundamental productivity, T^nj . Equation (23) implies that the e¤ect of
a selection e¤ect. Thus, let

trade is ultimately summarized through the change in the region’s share of its own intermediate goods, ^ jnn .
Since an increase in fundamental productivity in (n; j) raises its region and sector comparative advantage,
it generally also leads to an increase in

j
nn

so that ^ jnn > 1. Similarly, it reduces

k
ii ;

for i 6= n and all

k; since other regions and sectors now buy more sector-j intermediates from region n: Hence, since

> 0,

trade reduces the e¤ect of a fundamental productivity increase to (n; j) on measured productivity in that
region-sector while, at the same time, raising measured productivity in other regions and sectors.
Intuitively, the selection e¤ect underlying the change in expenditure shares works as follows. As everyone purchases more goods from the region-sector pair (n; j) that experienced a fundamental productivity
increase, that region-sector pair now produces a greater variety of intermediate goods. However, the new
varieties of intermediate goods, since they were not being initially produced, are associated with idiosyncratic
productivities that are relatively worse than those of varieties produced before the change. This negative
selection e¤ect in (n; j) partially o¤sets the positive consequences of the fundamental productivity change,
relative to an economy with no trade, in that region-sector pair. In other region-sector pairs, (i; j) for i 6= n,

the opposite e¤ect takes place. As the latter regions do not directly experience the fundamental productivity

change, their own trade share of intermediates decreases. As a result, the varieties of intermediate goods that
continue being produced in those regions have relatively higher idiosyncratic productivities, thereby yielding higher measured productivity in those locations. All of these trade-related e¤ects are present whether
material inputs are considered (case RS) or are absent from the analysis (case RNS).
3.1.1 Computing Aggregate, Regional, and Sectoral Measured TFP.—
Since measured TFP at the level of a sector in a region is calculated based on gross output in Equation
(21), we use gross output revenue shares to aggregate these TFP measures into regional, sectoral, or national
measures. Changes in regional and sectoral measured TFP are then simply weighted averages of changes
in measured TFP in each region-sector pair (n; j), where the weights are the corresponding (n; j) gross
output revenue shares. Thus, since gross output revenue, Ynj ; is given by Equation (22), regional changes in
measured TFP are given by

A^n =

J
X
j=1

Ynj

j
j=1 Yn

J
X

A^jn =

j=1

wn Ljn
j
n (1
n)
wn Ljn
j
n (1
n)

j=1

A^jn ;

(24)

A^jn :

(25)

while sectoral changes in measured TFP can be expressed as

A =

N
X

Ynj

A^j
PN
j n
Y
n=1
n=1 n

N
X

n=1

Similarly, changes in aggregate TFP are then given by

A^ =

J X
N
X

j=1 n=1

j=1

Ynj
PN

j
n=1 Yn

A^jn =

n=1

J X
N
X

j=1 n=1

wn Ljn
j
n (1
n)

j=1

wn Ljn
j
n (1
n)

n=1

wn Ljn
j
n (1
n)

A^jn :

(26)

3.2 GDP
Real GDP is calculated by taking the di¤erence between real gross output and expenditures on materials.
Given equations (7), (8), and (9), as well as factor market equilibrium conditions, changes in real GDP may
be written as
j

\n
ln GDP

^ jn
w
^n L
P^nj

^ jn
ln w
^n + ln L

ln P^nj

This expression simpli…es further since, from (19),
1

j
x
^j
^j
P^nj = hnn i j n ;
i
T^nj

so that GDP changes in a region-sector pair (n; j), resulting from changes in fundamental TFP, T^nj , are given
by

\n
ln GDP

T^nj

j
n

^ j + ln
ln A^jn + ln L
n

^ jnn

where the second line uses Equation (23).

w
^n

^ j + ln
+ ln L
n

w
^n
x
bjn

;

x
bjn

(27)

Equation (27) represents a decomposition of the e¤ects of a change in fundamental productivity on GDP.
The …rst term re‡ects the e¤ect of the change on measured productivity discussed in Section 3.1. This e¤ect
is such that measured TFP and output move proportionally. In other words, the selection e¤ect associated
with intermediates and input-output linkages acts identically on measured TFP and real GDP. In addition to
these e¤ects, GDP is also in‡uenced by two other forces captured by the second and third terms in Equation
(27).
The second term in Equation (27) describes the e¤ect of labor migration across regions and sectors on
GDP. A positive productivity change that attracts population to a given region-sector pair (n; j) will increase
^ jn . The reason is that all factors in (n; j) change in the
GDP proportionally to the amount of immigration, ln L
same proportions and the production function of intermediates in Equation (4) is constant-returns-to-scale.
The e¤ect of migration will be positive when the change in fundamental TFP is positive.
The third term in Equation (27) corresponds to the change in factor prices associated with the change in
fundamental TFP. Consider …rst a case without materials (RNS). In that case, ln w
^n =b
xjn = n ln (w
^n =b
rn ) =
j
^
n ln 1=Ln : Since land and structures are …xed, and therefore do not respond to changes in Tn , while labor is
mobile across locations, a positive productivity change that attracts people to the region will increase land
and structure prices more than wages. This mechanism leads to a reduction in real GDP, relative to the
proportional increase associated with the …rst two terms. The presence of decreasing returns resulting from
a regionally …xed factor implies that shifting population to a location strains local resources, such as local
infrastructure, in a way that o¤sets the positive GDP response stemming from the in‡ow of workers. In

regions that do not experience the productivity increase, the opposite is true so that the second and third
terms in (27) will be negative and positive respectively. These forces are also present when we consider
material inputs although, in that case, the relevant ratio is that of changes in wages to changes in the
cost of the input bundle, xjn : The input bundle includes the rental rate, but it also includes the price of
all materials. An overall assessment of the e¤ects of fundamental productivity changes then requires a
quantitative evaluation.
Observe that when considering the aggregate economy-wide e¤ects of a positive T^nj , the end result for
GDP may be larger or smaller than the original change. The overall impact of the last two terms in
Equation (27) will depend on whether the direct e¤ect of migration dominates the strain on local resources
in the region experiencing the change, n, as well as the intensiveness with which this …xed factor is used
in the regions workers leave behind, i 6= n. Thus, the size and sign of these e¤ects depend on the overall
distribution of Hn and population Ln in the economy and, therefore, on whether the productivity change
increases the dispersion of the wage-cost bundle ratio, w
^n =b
xn , across regions. If a productivity change
leads to migration towards regions that lack abundant land and structures, the aggregation of the last two
terms in Equation (27) may be negative or very small. In contrast, if a change moves people into regions
with an abundance of local …xed factors, the impact of these last two terms will be positive. Evidently,
whatever the case, one must still add the direct e¤ect of the fundamental productivity change on measured
productivity. These di¤erent mechanisms underscore the importance of geography, and that of the sectoral
composition of technology changes, in order to assess the magnitude of such changes. In very extreme cases
(only Hawaii in our numerical exercises), these mechanisms may even lead to negative aggregate GDP e¤ects
of productivity increases. However, even though the equilibrium allocation is Pareto e¢ cient, in practice
positive technological changes always lead to welfare gains.
Finally, it is worth noting that in the case of aggregate productivity changes, the distribution of population
across locations is unchanged since people do not seek to move when all locations are similarly a¤ected.
Therefore, measured productivity and GDP unambiguously increase proportionally in that case.
3.2.1 Computing Aggregate, Regional, and Sectoral real GDP.—
Given that real GDP is a value added measure, we use value added shares in constant prices for aggregation
purposes. Denote sectoral and regional value added (n; j) shares in a given benchmark year by
j
n

=P
J

wn Ljn + rn Hnj

j=1

and
j
n

=P
N

wn Ljn + rn Hnj

;

wn Ljn + rn Hnj

n=1

wn Hnj + rn Hnj

respectively. Then, the change in regional real GDP arising from a change in fundamentals is given by
\n =
GDP

J
X
j=1

j
j\
n GDP n :

(28)

Similarly, the change in sectoral real GDP may be expressed as
j

\ =
GDP

N
X

j
j\
n GDP n :

(29)

n=1

Finally, aggregate change in GDP is given by
\=
GDP

J X
N
X

j
j\
n GDP n ;

(30)

j=1 n=1

where
j
n

wn Ljn + rn Hnj
PN
j
j
j=1
n=1 wn Ln + rn Hn

=P
J

is the share of region-sector pair (n; j) in value added in the base year.
3.3 Welfare
We end this section with a brief discussion of the welfare e¤ects that result from changes in fundamental
^ = I^n =P^n . Then,
productivity. Using (3), (7), and (8), it follows that the change in welfare is given by U
using the de…nition of Pn and equations (19) and (23), we have that
^=
ln U
where $n =
^ = PJ
ln U
j=1

(1
(1
j

j=1

n n )wn

n n )wn +(1

ln A^jn

+ ln

w
^n
ln A^jn + ln $n j + (1
x
^n

: Note that if

w
^n
x
^jn

$n )

= 0 for all n, then

^
x
^jn

;

(31)

= 0 and $n = 1: In that case

A change in fundamental productivity, T^nj ; a¤ects welfare through three main channels. First, the change
a¤ects welfare through changes in measured productivity, ln A^jn , in all sectors (which in turn are in‡uenced
by the selection e¤ect in intermediate goods production described earlier), weighted by consumption shares,
j

. Second, the productivity change a¤ects welfare through changes in the cost of labor relative to the

input bundle, ln w
^n =b
xjn . As in the case of GDP, when we abstract from materials (the RNS case), the
second term is equivalent to the change in the price of labor relative to that of land and structures or,
alternatively, the inverse of the change in population. Therefore, when a region-sector pair (n; j) experiences
an increase in fundamental productivity, it bene…ts from the additional measured productivity but loses
from the in‡ow of population. In other regions that did not experience the productivity increase, population
falls while measured productivity tends to increase (through a selection e¤ect where remaining varieties in
those regions are more productive), so that both e¤ects on welfare are positive. These mechanisms are more
complex once sectoral linkages are taken into account by way of material inputs, and their analysis then
requires us to compute and calibrate the model. As Equation (31) indicates, welfare also simply re‡ects
a weighted average across sectors of real GDP per capita. Third, welfare is a¤ected by the change in the
returns to the national portfolio, which constitutes part of the real income received by individuals.
The international trade literature has studied the welfare implications of a similar class of models in detail,
as discussed in Arkolakis et al. (2012). Relative to these models, the study of the domestic economy compels
us to include multiple sectors, input-output linkages, and two factors, one of which is mobile across sectors

and the other across locations and sectors. Finally, our model also endogenizes trade surpluses and de…cits.
If we were to close all of these margins, it is straightforward to show that the implied change in welfare
simply reduces to the change in measured productivity in the resulting one-sector economy, reproducing the
formula highlighted by Arkolakis et. al. (2012).
4. CALCULATING COUNTERFACTUALS AND CALIBRATION
From the discussion in the last section, it should be clear that the ultimate outcome of a given change
in fundamentals on the U.S. economy will depend on various aspects of its particular sectoral and regional
composition. These aspects include the distribution of population across regions, that of land and structures,
the nature of transport costs, material shares, etc. Therefore, to assess the magnitude of the responses of
measured TFP, GDP and welfare to fundamental technology changes, one needs to compute a quantitatively
meaningful variant of the model. This requires addressing four practical issues.
First, the U.S. economy exhibits aggregate trade de…cits and surpluses between states. The model presented in Section 2 allows for the possibility of sectoral trade imbalances across states as well as aggregate
trade imbalances due to inter-regional transfers of the returns from land and structures, (see equation 20).
By incorporating variation in regional contributions to the national portfolio through the parameters
model is capable of matching quite well the observed aggregate trade imbalances in the U.S. economy.
estimate the regional contributions to the national portfolio,

n;
14

our
We

by minimizing the square di¤erences be-

tween observed regional trade imbalances and those that emerge in the model through interregional transfers
implied by the national portfolio of …xed assets. Figure 7 presents the resulting

n ’s

as well as the observed

and predicted trade imbalances. Figure 7a shows the match between the observed and predicted regional
trade imbalances. The match is not perfect since the constraint

2 [0; 1] for all n occasionally binds both

above and below for some states, as shown in Figure 7b. States with large surpluses like Wisconsin contribute

all of the returns to their land and structures to the national portfolio, while states with large de…cits, like
Florida, contribute nothing. Intuitively, Floridians own assets in the rest of the U.S. and live in part from
the returns to these assets. In what follows, we set the unexplained component of trade imbalances to zero,
as described in Appendix A.1., and we use the resulting economy as the baseline economy from which we
calculate the elasticities to fundamental regional and sectoral changes.15
The second issue relates to our model incorporating regional but no international trade. Fortunately, the
trade data across U.S. states that we use to calibrate the model, which is described in detail below, gives us
expenditures in domestically produced goods across states. Even then, small adjustments are needed but,
overall, we are able to use these data to assess the behavior of the domestic economy without considering
international economic links.16 Thus, we study the domestic economy subject to the small data adjustments
described below.
The third issue of practical relevance is that solving for the equilibrium requires identifying technology levels in each region-sector pair (n; j) ; bilateral trade costs between regions for di¤erent sectors (n; i; j) ; and the
1 4 Unless one writes a dynamic model in which imbalances are the result of fundamental sources of ‡uctuations, one cannot
explain either the level, or the potential changes, in the value of n . Explaining the observed ownership structure is certainly
an interesting direction for future research, but one that is currently beyond reach in a rich quantitative model comparable to
the one studied in this paper.
1 5 Our approach di¤ers from the one in Dekle, Eaton and Kortum (2007) in that we focus on trade across regions rather than
countries and, more importantly, allow for endogenous transfers across regions that match observed trade imbalances.
1 6 In principle, one might potentially think of the ‘rest of the world’ as another region in the model but, to the best of our
knowledge, information on international trade by states is not systematically recorded.

elasticity of substitution across varieties, all of which are not directly observable from the data. Following the
method …rst proposed by Dekle, Eaton and Kortum (2008), and adapted to an international context with multiple sectors and input-output linkages by Caliendo and Parro (2014), we bypass this third issue by computing
the model in changes. We show in Appendix A.2 that the same method works well in our setup. In particular,
n
oN;N;J
N;J;J
j
^j j
,
given a set of parameters j ; j ; n ; n ; jk
n n=1;j=1;k=1 ; and data for In ; Ln ; n ; ni ; Tn ; ^ ni
n=1;i=1;j=1
n
oN;N;J
^n; x
^ j ; ^j
the system of 2N + 3JN + JN 2 equations yields the values of w
^n ; L
^jn ; P^nj ; X
; where
n
ni
n=1;i=1;j=1
n
oN;N;J
^ j and ^ j denote expenditures and trade shares following fundamental changes T^j ; ^ j
X
: The
n
n
ni
ni
n=1;i=1;j=1

exact equations of the system are presented in Appendix A.2. We use all 50 U.S. states and 26 sectors, where
15 sectors produce tradable manufactured goods. Ten sectors produce services and we add construction for
a total of 11 non-tradeable sectors. Assessing the quantitative e¤ects on the U.S. economy of fundamental

changes at the level of a sector within a region then requires solving a system of 69,000 equations and unknowns. This system can be solved in blocks recursively using well established numerical methods. The exact
algorithm is described in Appendix A.3. Having carried out these calculations, it is then straightforward to
j
^ ; among others.
\ n and U
obtain any other variable of interest such as r^n; ^ jnn ; A^jn ; GDP
In order to generate a calibrated model of the U.S. economy that gives a quantitative assessment of the
e¤ects of disaggregated changes in fundamental productivity, we need to obtain values for all parameters,
n
oN;N;J
N;J;J
j
j
; j ; n ; n ; jk
and
variables
I
;
L
;
;
: Throughout, we let ^ jni = 1; for
n
n
n
n n=1;j=1;k=1
ni
n=1;i=1;j=1

all j; n; i; and adjust T^nj in di¤erent ways depending on the particular counterfactual exercise. We obtain
n

using the calculations described above, and Appendix A.4 describes the data underlying our calculations

and presents a detailed account of the rest of our calibration strategy.
Finally, the fourth issue relates to our assumption that labor can move freely across regions. The potential
concern is that, in practice, there are frictions to labor mobility across regions in the U.S. Hence, our model
could systematically generate too much labor mobility as a result of fundamental productivity changes. In
order to study the extent to which the omission of mobility frictions can a¤ect our results, we perform a
set of exercises where we introduce the observed changes in fundamental TFP for all regions and sectors
from 2002 to 2007 into the model and calculate the implied changes in employment shares.17 We …nd that
the model generates changes in employment that are of the same order of magnitude as in the data. For
instance, the mean annualized percentage change in employment shares implied by the model is 0.257 while
the observed change was 0.213. Of course, we do not expect the results of this exercise to match the observed
changes in employment given that several factors, other than productivity changes, could have impacted the
U.S. economy during this period. Still, the message from this exercise is that the changes in employment
generated by observed productivity changes in our model are similar to observed employment changes. Thus,
there is little room for migration frictions to be playing a quantitative important role in the data.
5. THE IMPACT OF FUNDAMENTAL PRODUCTIVITY CHANGES
Having calibrated the model against available industry and trade data, we study the e¤ects of disaggregated
productivity changes. Throughout the analysis, the calculations of all the elasticities are based on 10 percent
changes in fundamental productivity. Figures 4 and 5 showed that yearly changes in measured productivity
1 7 To compute changes in observed fundamental TFP we use equation (23) : Note that the change in fundamental TFP is the
same as the change in measured TFP, scaled by the share of value added in gross output, if the selection channel is not active.
This is the case when using price indexes with constant weights as reported from 2002 to 2007 by the BEA.

Fig. 7. Regional trade inbalances and contributions to the National Portfolio
a: Trade Balance: Model and data (2007 U.S. dollars, billions)
60
Observed trade balance
National Portfolio balance

40
20
0
-20
-40

Wisc
ons
India in
na
L
o
North uisian
Caro a
lina
Ohio
Penn Iowa
sylva
Kan nia
Minn sas
e
Alab sota
ama
N
e
Mass braska
achu
Conn setts
ectic
Miss ut
ouri
Sout Arkansas
h Ca
Okla rolina
ho
Dela ma
wa
Oreg re
Mich on
igan
Sout Idaho
New h Dako
Ham
ta
p
Tenn shire
e
Rhod ssee
e
Was Island
hingt
on
U
Vermtah
Miss ont
issip
pi
Wes Maine
t
V
North irginia
Da
Wy kota
New oming
Mex
Mon ico
tan
Haw a
Ala aii
Colo ska
ra
Kent do
ucky
Illino
is
VirginNevada
ia &
D
Ariz C
Mary ona
New land
Jer
New sey
Y
Ge ork
Califorgia
ornia
Texa
Florid s
a

-60

b: Share of local rents on land and structures contributed to the National Portfolio
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2

Wisc
ons
India in
na
L
o
North uisian
Caro a
lina
Ohio
Penn Iowa
sylva
Kan nia
Minn sas
e
Alab sota
ama
N
e
b
Mass
ra
achu ska
Conn setts
ectic
Miss ut
ouri
A
Sout rkansa
s
h Ca
Okla rolina
hom
a
Dela
wa
Oreg re
Mich on
igan
Sout Idaho
h
New
D
Ham akota
p
Tenn shire
Rhod essee
e
Was Island
hingt
on
U
Vermtah
Miss ont
issip
pi
Wes Maine
t
North Virginia
Da
Wy kota
New oming
Mex
Mon ico
tan
Haw a
Alas aii
Colo ka
ra
Kent do
ucky
Illino
is
VirginNevada
ia &
D
Ariz C
Mary ona
New land
Jer
New sey
Y
Ge ork
Califorgia
ornia
Texa
Florid s
a

range between 0 and 2.5 percent, while sectoral changes take values between -4 percent and 4 percent, except
for Computer and Petroleum which experienced large changes in opposite directions. Thus, over the course
of …ve years (2002-2007), regions and sectors routinely experience changes in measured productivity in the
vicinity of 10 percent. In addition, while the numbers in Figures 4 and 5 relate to measured TFP and not
to fundamental TFP, the two concepts are closely related as we saw earlier. We begin by analyzing changes
to all sectors in one region, which we refer to as regional changes. We then study changes to all regions in
one sector, which we refer to as sectoral changes. Finally, we present examples of changes speci…c to a sector
within a region.
To facilitate comparisons across states and sectors we present our results in terms of elasticities. To
calculate aggregate elasticities of a given regional or sectoral productivity change we divide the e¤ects by the
share of the region or industry where the change was originated, and multiply by the size of the fundamental
productivity change (which in our exercises is always 10%). So the interpretation of an aggregate elasticity
is the e¤ect of a percentage change with constant national magnitude. In contrast, to calculate regional or

sectoral elasticities we only multiply by the size of the fundamental productivity change. Hence, for regional
or sectoral elasticities we are calculating the e¤ect of a change that depends on the size of the region or
sector a¤ected.
We compute counterfactual exercises in which i) we eliminate regional trade and sectoral linkages, labeled
as NRNS, ii) we eliminate sectoral linkages but allow interregional trade, labeled RNS, iii) we allow for
sectoral linkages but eliminate interregional trade, labeled NRS, and iv) we allow for regional trade and
sectoral linkages, labeled RS. The last case is the one relevant to the assessment of the consequences of a
fundamental change for the U.S. economy. To study di¤erent scenarios under these variants of our model, we
…rst compute allocations in the particular case of interest (say, without sectoral trade). We then introduce a
fundamental change in that counterfactual economy to calculate the e¤ect of the change in that case. This
gives us the e¤ects of fundamental changes in the presence or absence of a speci…c channel.
5.1 Regional Productivity Changes
5.1.1 Aggregate E¤ects of Regional Productivity Changes.—
As a starting point for our …ndings, consider Figure 8. The …gure shows the aggregate elasticities of
measured TFP and GDP to an increase in productivity in each of the 50 U.S. states in the three alternative
models (NRNS, RNS, RS). For example, when all channels are included (RS), the elasticity of aggregate
TFP to a fundamental productivity increase in all sectors in Texas is 0.4 and the elasticity of aggregate GDP
is 1.1.
Let us focus …rst on measured TFP in the top-left-hand map of the …gure, Panel 8a. In the NRNS case,
Equation (26) tells us that changes in aggregate measured TFP are simply the direct consequence of the
change in fundamental productivity. The impact on aggregate TFP, therefore, amounts to the share of that
region times the magnitude of the change, and so the elasticity of aggregate TFP to a regional change in
TFP is equal to one. As we move down to Figure 8c, we see the e¤ect on measured TFP in the presence of
regional trade only (RNS). As discussed earlier, trade leads to a negative selection e¤ect in the states that
experience the change, whereby newly produced varieties in that state have relatively lower idiosyncratic
productivities, and to a positive selection e¤ect in other states. The overall e¤ect on the aggregate elasticity
of measured TFP stemming from selection may thus have either sign, but it will tend to be more negative
the larger the state experiencing the fundamental productivity increase. This selection e¤ect implies that
the impact on aggregate measured TFP in the case of, say, California, is dampened from 1 in the NRNS case
to 0.9938 in the RNS case. Similarly, the aggregate elasticity of a fundamental regional change in Texas is
also dampened from 1 to 0.9928. In contrast, the selection e¤ect tends to amplify the elasticity in aggregate
measured TFP arising from fundamental changes in many small states. For example, Nebraska’s aggregate
measured TFP elasticity increases to 1.037 in the RNS case.
Including input-output linkages reduces the elasticity of aggregate TFP signi…cantly in all states. Recall
from Equation (23) that fundamental TFP changes a¤ect value added and not gross production directly.
Hence, their e¤ect on measured productivity are attenuated by the share of value added. The end result
is that the e¤ect of fundamental changes on measured TFP declines substantially relative to the models
without input-output linkages. As we discuss below, this e¤ect is not present in the case of real GDP.
Indeed, input-output linkages imply that more of the gains from fundamental changes in productivity ensue
from lower material prices, rather than direct increases in measured productivity.
Let us now turn to the second column in Figure 8. Since a productivity change in all regions and sectors

Fig. 8. Aggregate e¤ects of regional fundamental productivity changes
a: Elasticity of aggregate TFP (model NRNS)

b: Elasticity of aggregate GDP (model NRNS)

2.5

1
1

0.9

1.1

0.88
-0.4

0.16

1.8
1.1

1.5

0.61

0.72

1.1

2.3

0.73

1.8

1.5

1.3

1.4

TN
AZ

1.1

1.2

1.5

0.86

0.57
AL

0.17

1.3

0.67

1.1
MS

-0.15

c: Elasticity of aggregate TFP (model RNS)

0.53

1.3

0.09

d: Elasticity of aggregate GDP (model RNS)

1.007

1.01

1.007

1.0001

0.9957

0.9944

0.9998
1.037

0.9955

1.036

0.9996 IN
1.016

0.9981

0.9951

0.9938

1.007

1.002

0.9978

1.004

1.001

0.9925

0.9955

1.019

0.99

0.997

0.9992

0.75

0.25

0.67

0.99

0.9958

1.3

1.4

0.63

0.94

0.93

0.39

1.2

1.7

0.42

1.3

1.1

0.3

1.01

1.02

1.01

0.9899

1.001

0.97

0.47

0.81

0.82
AL

0.52

1.2

0.58

0.9928

1.2
MS

1.007

1.0001

1.015

0.9923

0.22

e: Elasticity of aggregate TFP (model RS)

0.41

0.98

0.67

f: Elasticity of aggregate GDP (model RS)

0.41

1.1

0.44

0.4

0.39

0.41

0.38

0.39

0.4

0.41

0.42

0.36

0.38

0.39

0.41

0.38

0.41

0.17

0.46

0.94
CA

0.53

1.4
KS

0.9

1.01

1.2

1.6

0.9

0.51
OK

0.45

0.4

0.9

0.61

0.38

0.4

0.38

0.92

1.2

0.96

0.84

0.4

0.52

0.82

0.91
AL

0.68

1.1

0.71

1.1
MS
LA

0.35

0.39

0.42

-0.26

MS
LA

0.47

0.73

has no implications on migration or trade ‡ows, the aggregate elasticity of GDP to such a change is always
equal to one in our model. This is not the case for regional changes. In the NRNS case in the top right-hand
panel, 8b, the e¤ect on aggregate GDP derives from the changes in measured TFP just discussed combined
with the impact of migration. Thus, the outcome for aggregate GDP now depends on the whole distribution
of land and structures across states. In some cases there is a large positive e¤ect from migration on aggregate
real GDP, as in the case of productivity changes in Illinois or New York. These are states that are relatively
25

1.1
MD

1.3

0.4
0.42

0.65

1.3

0.66

1.6

1.1

0.34

0.65
UT

1.1

0.42

1.6

0.2

1.2

0.39

TX
HI

0.59

0.23

0.41

0.38

0.39

0.83

0.38

0.39

0.36
0.4

0.39

0.38

0.39

TN
AZ

0.4

RI
CT

0.42

NE
UT

0.39

0.38

0.96

0.42

0.4

0.4
0.42

0.39

0.41

NV
CA

0.41

1.1

0.76

0.83

1.3

0.43

1.002

0.49

0.4

1.6

0.98

0.05

0.71
NV

1.3

0.35

1.6

0.05

1.1

0.39

0.1

1.004

0.9953
VA

TN
AZ

0.9898

1.01

RI
CT

0.9949

NE
NV

1.016

1.003

1.037

0.97

1.004

1.021

1.013

1.011

1.2

0.26

0.73

1.3

-0.05

1
NC

1.1

1.8
OH

0.75

1.1

0.22

2
RI

0.99

0.57

0.93

1.04

SD
WY

1.2

0.34

TN
AZ

RI
CT

NE
NV

0.88

0.89

abundant in land and structures (see Figure 6) so that the economy bene…ts from immigration even at the
cost of emptying other regions. The opposite is true of Wisconsin, where migration turns an elasticity of
aggregate measured TFP of one (top left-hand map, 8a) into a negative elasticity of aggregate real GDP of
-0.4 (top right-hand map, 8b). From Figure 8d, adding trade (RNS) generally implies smaller di¤erences
between aggregate measured TFP e¤ects and real GDP e¤ects. Trade allows residents in all locations to
bene…t from the high productivity of particular regions without them having to move. Put another way, trade
substitutes for migration. This substitution is more concentrated towards nearby states when input-output
linkages are added (RS). Speci…cally, trade makes …rms bene…t from a change in fundamental productivity
in nearby states through cheaper materials as well. As alluded to earlier, more of the bene…ts from a
given regional fundamental productivity increase are transmitted through the price of material inputs in the
RS case so that the importance of regional trade increases. Ultimately, the di¤erence between changes in
measured TFP and changes in output are generally larger in the absence of one of these two channels.
When both input-output and trade linkages are present (RS), which captures the actual e¤ect of regional
fundamental productivity changes, we …nd that the aggregate elasticity of GDP to regional productivity
changes substantially in many regions. This is clear for Florida. In terms of land and structures, Florida
is small with relatively low wage to rental ratios.18 As a result of increased immigration the state’s output
increases less than it would in …xed-factor-abundant regions. Input-output linkages tend to reduce even more
the elasticity in …xed-factor scarce states by inducing a larger in‡ow of workers. This leads to an elasticity
of only 0.89 in Florida. In contrast, for California, with its abundant land and structures, we estimate
an elasticity of 1.3. The di¤erence is large in magnitude. A productivity change of the same national
magnitude in California increases national output 46% more than in Florida. Figure 8f shows that the range
of elasticities is even larger than that. It goes from -0.26 in Hawaii and 0.17 in Montana to 1.6 in New Jersey,
New York, and Massachusetts. These large range illustrates how the geography of productivity changes is
essential to understanding their aggregate consequences.
We also evaluated how the elasticities from our model change if we restrict labor not to move across
regions. When there is no mobility and no interregional trade, both the aggregate TFP and GDP elasticities
to regional fundamental productivity changes are equal to one. Adding trade makes the selection channel
operative in both cases, and we …nd that the TFP elasticities are similar in both models. However, GDP
elasticities are considerably di¤erent, and in our view much more credible, when we add migration.19
Figure 9 presents the welfare elasticity to regional fundamental productivity changes.20 Recall that because
of free migration, welfare is identical across regions. Welfare elasticities are always positive but their range
is again quite large. Welfare elasticities are in general large for centrally located states in the Midwest and
the South. They range from 1.7 in Minnesota and Indiana to 0.6 in western states like Montana and 0.62
in Nevada. This is natural as the consumption price index tends to be lower in central states due to lower
average transportation costs to the rest of the country. Adjustments through the ownership structure matter
also when comparing aggregate GDP and welfare elasticities. In states where the contribution to the national
portfolio is zero,

= 0, like Florida, the welfare elasticity tends to be smaller than that of GDP. The reverse

is true in states like Wisconsin, where

= 1. In the latter states, agents bene…t –through their ownership

1 8 Even though some of these states are large in terms of area, they have low levels of infrastructure and other structures, as
we saw in Figure 6.
1 9 In Section 4 we feed into the model the observed change in fundamental TFP by regions and sectors to show that the model
implied changes in employment shares are consistent with the patterns observed in the data. We also introduced these changes
into a model with no migration and compare the implied regional GDP e¤ects with the data. We …nd that the correlation is
26.3% while the correlation between the regional GDP e¤ects implied from the model with mobility and the data is 56.5%.
2 0 To calculate welfare elasticities we use the share of employment in the state.

Fig. 9. Welfare elasticity of regional productivity changes
NH

1.6
WA

0.89
OR

0.97

0.6

0.78

1.1

0.52
0.62
CA

1.5

1.4

1.1

0.89

0.9

1.5

1.7

1.2

1.4

1.5

0.83

0.92
0.76
WV

1.1

TN
AZ

0.71

0.81

1.1

0.5

0.89

0.98

1.4

1.2

1.5

0.92

1.2

1.5

1.04

1.3

1.6

1.7

1.3

1.4
AL

1.5

0.68

1.2

0.75
MS

0.64

1.5

0.96

0.77

of the national portfolio– from the increase in the price of local factors that result from the fundamental
productivity change without having to move to the state. This mitigates the congestion caused by local
decreasing returns to labor in these states leading to larger welfare gains.
5.1.2 Regional Propagation of Local Productivity Changes.—
Thus far, we have emphasized the aggregate e¤ect of regional changes. The model, evidently, also tells us
how productivity changes in particular states propagate to other states. As an example, Figure 10 panels
a, c, and e present the regional elasticity of measured TFP, GDP, and employment from an increase in
fundamental TFP in California.21 The top panel focuses …rst on the response of measured TFP. California
presents an own elasticity of measured TFP of 0.4. The fact that the elasticity is lower than one re‡ects,
…rst, the negative selection mechanism and, second, the fact that fundamental productivity scales value
added. The elasticity of measured productivity in other states is mostly positive because the selection e¤ect
in those states means that varieties that continue to be produced there have relatively higher idiosyncratic
productivities. Regions close to California, such as Nevada, bene…t the most, with the e¤ect decreasing as
we move east due to higher transport costs. That is, distance matters, although its implications are not
uniform. As a result of sectoral linkages, industries in states that supply material inputs to California bene…t
to a greater degree from their positive selection e¤ect. Other states that compete with California, such as
Texas and Louisiana in Petroleum and Coal, gain little or even lose in terms of measured TFP.
Figure 10 panel c depicts the regional elasticity of GDP of a fundamental productivity increase in California. California’s own GDP elasticity with respect to a fundamental productivity increase is 2.8 and,
in part, derives from the in‡ux of population to the state, (Figure 10 panel e shows that the employment
elasticity is equal to 2.7). All other states lose in terms of GDP and employment, and lose to a greater extent
if they are farther away from California. This e¤ect is particularly large since California has a relatively
high wage to unit cost ratio. Therefore, the in‡ux of population adds more to California than it subtracts
from other states. Furthermore, the relatively small contribution of California to the national portfolio of
land and structures results in a high regional elasticity of employment. Some large Midwestern states, like
Illinois, and Northeastern states, like New York, lose substantial from the decrease in population caused by
the migration to California. The reason is partly that the relatively high stock of land and structures in
2 1 To calculate this elasticity, we multiply the e¤ect of the regional fundamental productivity increase only by the size of the
fundamental productivity change.

these states makes the population losses particularly costly there. Other states like Wisconsin or Minnesota
are a¤ected by the decline in the returns to the national portfolio of land and structures without bene…ting
disproportionately from the increase in their local returns given their high

Fig. 10. Regional elasticities to a fundamental productivity change in California and Florida
a: Regional TFP elasticity to California change

b: Regional TFP elasticity to Florida change

0.007

0.001

0.0004
OR

0.007

ME
MT

0.001

0.002

0.008

0.001
0.007

0.008

0.001

0.009

0.003

0.402

0.002

0.004

0.003

0.001

0.007

0.005

0.00004

-0.001

-0.001
0.003

-0.0001

-0.0004

0.0005

-0.0002

0.001

-0.001

0.001

-0.0001

0.004

0.0002

0.002

-0.001

0.001

-0.0001

-0.005
-0.0002
WV

0.0003

0.001

0.003
AL

0.004

0.01

0.002

-0.001
MS

0.001

0.002

-0.0005

0.001

-0.001

c: Regional GDP elasticity to California change

0.0001

0.41

-0.002

d: Regional GDP elasticity to Florida change

-0.32

-0.2

-0.15

-0.17

-0.18

-0.21

-0.27

-0.14
-0.21

-0.15

-0.16

-0.25

-0.17

-0.2

2.8

-0.25

-0.21

-0.17

-0.23

-0.26

-0.29

-0.21

-0.14

-0.11

-0.13

-0.09

-0.1

-0.13

-0.11

-0.13
KS

-0.11

-0.14

-0.16

-0.14

-0.21

-0.12

-0.25

-0.21

-0.23

-0.09

-0.13

-0.12

-0.14

-0.14
NC

-0.11
AL

-0.13

-0.07

-0.11

-0.12
MS

-0.18

-0.14

-0.27

-0.12

e: Regional Employment elasticity to California change

-0.11

3.4

-0.09

f: Regional Employment elasticity to Florida change

-0.44

-0.26

-0.27

-0.3

-0.33

-0.4

-0.34

-0.29

-0.36
KS

-0.31

2.7

-0.37

-0.33

-0.31

-0.37

-0.34

-0.35

-0.41

-0.37

-0.28

-0.35

-0.33

-0.25

-0.35

-0.17

-0.18

-0.2

-0.17

-0.37

-0.17

-0.21

-0.29

-0.19
KS

-0.18

-0.21

-0.23

-0.19

-0.21

-0.2

-0.21

-0.18

-0.37

-0.32

-0.35

-0.15

-0.2

-0.18

-0.26

-0.3

-0.2
WV

-0.21

-0.18

-0.18
AL

-0.21

-0.13

-0.18

-0.39

-0.19

MS
LA

-0.18

-0.16

As a last example of the e¤ects of regional changes, we brie‡y discuss the case of Florida. Florida is
interesting in that a an increase in its fundamental TFP generates a relatively small aggregate elasticity of
real GDP. Figure 10 panels b, d, and f present a set of …gures analogous to those in Figure 10 panels a, c,
28

-0.12
MD

-0.18
MS

-0.16

TN
AZ

-0.33

-0.32
HI

-0.19

AL
TX

-0.18

-0.23
-0.19

-0.25

-0.15

MA
RI

-0.21

-0.17

-0.3

-0.23

-0.21

-0.24

-0.34

-0.33

-0.21
VA

-0.16

-0.43

-0.31

TN
AZ

-0.36
OH

-0.29

NE
NV

-0.48

-0.37

-0.26
-0.26

-0.4

-0.28

-0.41

-0.32

ME
MT

-0.12

-0.21

-0.28

-0.14

-0.07

-0.12

-0.14

-0.1

-0.12

-0.22

-0.13

-0.1

-0.13

-0.17

-0.1

-0.15

-0.17

-0.22

-0.16

-0.17

-0.14

-0.26

-0.21

-0.1

-0.23

-0.25

-0.23
-0.2

TN
AZ

-0.18

RI
CT

-0.25
PA

NE
NV

-0.1

-0.31

-0.36

-0.25

-0.16

-0.29

-0.19

0.001

0.002

-0.0001

AL
TX

0.002
NJ

OH
0.001
0.0002 IL
0.002
0.0002 IN
0.002
VA

0.003

0.0004
PA

0.001

0.002

-0.001

0.001

-0.0003

0.002

0.0005

0.002

-0.0002

0.005

0.002

-0.001

0.004

0.006

0.0003

0.002

TN
AZ

RI
CT

0.001

NE
UT

0.004

0.003

0.005

-0.001

0.003

0.001

0.003

0.001

3.3

and e but for Florida’s case. Most of the e¤ects that we underscore for California are evident for Florida
as well. However, the region-speci…c productivity change induces more pronounced immigration. Florida’s
employment elasticity is equal to 3.3 which is very large even compared to California (2.7). This shift in
population puts a strain on local …xed factors and infrastructure that are signi…cant to the extent that
Florida’s real GDP increases only slightly more than its population. This strain on Florida’s …xed resources
is magni…ed by the fact that the state is relatively isolated and, in particular, sells relatively few materials
to other states. Furthermore, because Florida contributes nothing to the national portfolio of land and
structures, agents in other regions do not share the gains from the fundamental productivity change, which
exacerbates migration ‡ows into the state. The end result is that the loss in output in other regions balances
to a larger extent Florida’s increase in GDP, thus leading to a smaller overall aggregate elasticity of GDP.
5.2 Sectoral Productivity Changes
In contrast to regional changes, studying the e¤ects of sectoral changes has a long tradition in the macroeconomics literature (see Long and Plosser, 1983, Horvath, 1998, Dupor, 1999, Foerster et al. 2011, and
Acemoglu, et al. 2012, among many others). Despite this long tradition, little is known about how the
geography of economic activity impinges on the e¤ects of sectoral productivity changes. Our framework
highlights two main channels through which geography a¤ects the aggregate impact of sectoral changes.
First, regional trade is costly so that, given a set of input-output linkages, sectoral productivity changes
will produce di¤erent economic outcomes depending on how geographically concentrated these changes are.
Second, land and structures, including infrastructure, are locally …xed factors. Therefore, changes that a¤ect
sectors concentrated in regions that have an abundance of these factors will tend to have larger e¤ects.
Fig. 11. Aggregate measured TFP elasticities to a sectoral fundamental productivity change
a: Elasticity
ofinaggregate
TFP
(modelRS)
RS)
Change
aggregate TFP
(%,model

b: Ratio of TFP elasticities in NRS versus RS

0.6

1.2
1.15

0.5
1.1
0.4
1.05
1

0.3

0.95
0.2
0.9
0.1

0.85
0.8

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5.2.1. Aggregate E¤ects of Sectoral Productivity Changes.—
Figure 11 presents aggregate responses of measured productivity to changes in fundamental productivity
in each sector. In this case, a fundamental change in a given sector is identical across all regions in which
the sector is represented. We present aggregate elasticities for the case in which all channels are operative
(RS), as well as the ratio of the elasticity in the case without regional trade, NRS, and the RS case. Under
the maintained assumptions that the share of land and structures in value added is constant across sectors
(

n ),

and that the share of consumption across sectors is identical across regions (

), trade matters for

the aggregate e¤ects of sectoral fundamental TFP changes only in the presence of sectoral linkages. Absent
sectoral linkages, a given sectoral fundamental TFP change does not a¤ect the distribution of employment
across regions. Therefore, in both the NRNS and RNS cases, the aggregate TFP elasticity with respect to
changes in sectoral fundamental productivity is equal to one for all sectors.
Figure 11a shows that, compared to an economy with only land, structures, and labor, adding material
inputs reduces signi…cantly the aggregate TFP elasticity with respect to a given sectoral productivity change.
Input-output linkages also skew the distribution of aggregate sectoral e¤ects. These di¤erences arise because
material inputs serve as an insurance mechanism against changes that are idiosyncratic to a particular sector.
That is, with input-output linkages, output in any sector depends on the productivity in other sectors. Trade
in‡uences this mechanism because intermediate inputs cannot be imported costlessly from other locations.
For example, as Figure 11b shows, eliminating trade leads to an elasticity of aggregate TFP that is about 15%
larger in the Transportation Equipment industry, but about 10% smaller in the Computer and Electronics
industry.
When we focus on the elasticity of aggregate GDP it is even clearer that in sectors that are very concentrated geographically this in‡uence of regional trade is smaller than in sectors that are more dispersed
across regions. The Petroleum and Coal industry, for instance, is concentrated across less than a handful
of states. Hence failure to account for regional trade understates the aggregate elasticity of GDP in that
sector by about 10% (see 12b). In contrast in the relatively dispersed Transportation Equipment industry
disregarding regional trade overstates the elasticity by 19%. Trade has a negligible e¤ect on the aggregate
elasticities of changes to non-tradable sectors.
Figure 13 illustrates the welfare implications of sectoral changes in productivity. As with regional productivity changes, these exhibit a fairly large range. A fundamental productivity change in the Wood and
Paper industry –the most dispersed industry in the U.S.– has an e¤ect on welfare that is about 10% lower
than in the much more concentrates Petroleum and Coal and Chemical industries (see Figure 3b). The
sectoral distribution of welfare elasticity is also less skewed than that of GDP since measured TFP in general
responds less than employment to changes in fundamental productivity (see Equation (31)).
5.2.2. Regional Propagation of Sectoral Productivity Changes.—
Because they lack a geographic dimension, disaggregated structural models that have been used to study
the e¤ects of sectoral productivity changes have been silent on the consequences of these changes across
regions. While improvements or worsening conditions in a given sector have aggregate consequences, it is
also the case that these e¤ects have a geographic distribution that is typically not uniform across states.
Thus, we now turn our attention to the regional implications of sectoral fundamental TFP changes.
Figure 14 panels a, c, and e show regional elasticities of measured TFP, GDP and employment to a
fundamental TFP change in the Computer and Electronics industry. The share of the industry in total value
added is slightly less than 2 percent. Evidently, states whose production is concentrated in that industry

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Fig. 12. Aggregate GDP elasticities to a sectoral fundamental productivity change

1.6

a: Elasticity
ofinaggregate
GDP
(modelRS)
RS)
Change
aggregate GDP
(%,model
1.2

b: Ratio of GDP elasticities in NRS versus RS

1.4
1.15

1.2
1.1

1
1.05

0.8
1

0.6
0.95

0.4
0.9

0.2
0.85

0
0.8

Fig. 13. Welfare elasticities to sectoral fundamental productivity changes
1

Welfare elasticity

0.99

0.98

0.97

0.96

0.95

0.94

0.93

0.92

0.91

0.9

experience a more pronounced increase in measured TFP. However, as seen earlier, the direct e¤ect of the

productivity increase is mitigated somewhat by the negative selection e¤ect in those industries. In states

that do not produce in the industry, measured TFP is still a¤ected through the selection e¤ect, since unit
costs change as a result of changes in the price of materials. As Figure 14 panels a, c, and e make clear,

Fig. 14. Regional elasticities to a sectoral change in fundamental productivity (hundreds)
a: TFP elasticity to Computer and Elect. change

b: TFP elasticity to Transportation Equip. change

0.15

0.79
OR

6.4

ME
MT

0.0004

0.42

1.1
0.53

0.48

0.52

0.39

0.69

2.1

0.5

0.23

0.26

0.51

0.26

-0.02

0.07

0.33

0.37

0.06

0.39
KS

0.37

0.46

1.9

0.45

0.46

0.05

0.84

1.2

0.28

0.2

0.07

0.05

0.2

1.3

0.57
NC

0.52
AL

1.3

0.66

1.1

0.4
MS

0.17

1.2

0.06

1.4

0.3

c: GDP elasticity to Computer and Elect. change

0.77

0.3

0.55

d: GDP elasticity to Transportation Equip. change

1.7

0.88

22.3

ME
MT

0.44

0.71

0.28

0.01

1.5

1.1
KS

6.1

5.5

0.55

0.89

0.91

0.43

5.1

0.95

0.81

7.3

0.89

0.64

0.8

1.1

0.54

0.46

0.23
KS

0.52

1.1

2.3

0.75

0.71

0.53

1.3

4.2

0.72

1.1

0.51

0.87

0.96

0.99

-0.23

0.12
NC

0.52
AL

0.12

0.55

0.58

0.96
MS

1.8

5.5

1.04

1.1

2.8

e: Employment elasticity to Comp. and Elect. change

0.29

0.88

1.1

f: Employment elasticity to Transp. Equip. change

-1.5

0.46

-0.68

-0.75

-0.07

-1.32

-0.15

-0.32
KS

2.2

1.7

-0.79

-0.48

-0.89

-0.29

0.02

-0.41

-0.76

-0.52

-0.46

1.6

-0.82

1.8

0.09

-1.3

0.004

0.2

-0.07

1.1
NV
UT

-0.03

-1

0.4

-0.25

2.2

-0.53
KS

-0.16

0.69

-0.08

0.07

-0.58

0.1

-0.96

-1.59

-0.14

0.24

-0.54

-0.07

-0.61

0.54

0.47

0.15

0.7

-0.12

-0.55
WV

-0.84

-0.51

-0.32
AL

-1.37

-0.46

-0.65

-1.32

2.6

MS
LA

-0.88

-0.01

the productivity change in Computer and Electronics a¤ects mostly western states where this industry has
traditionally been heavily represented.
Perhaps remarkably, the productivity increase in Computer and Electronics has very small or negative
consequences for GDP and population in some states that are near those where the industry is concentrated.
Consider, for instance, the cases of California and Massachusetts, two states that are active in Computers and
Electronics. As the result of the productivity change, their populations grow. However, neighboring states
32

-0.1
MD

0.24
MS

1.2

TN
AZ

1.5

-0.38
HI

0.25

AL
TX

-0.3

-0.01

1.3

-0.78

-0.16

-0.73

0.11
RI

-0.48

-0.9

-0.63

0.31

0.23

-2.31

1.3

-0.27
VA

1.7

-2.73

TN
AZ

-0.32
OH

-1.32

NE
NV

-8.81

-0.62

0.84
-1.41

-1.4

-0.22

-0.32

2.4

ME
MT

0.55

1.3

-0.77

0.11

0.54

1.6

0.5

3.1

1.3

0.6

0.53

1.7

0.21

-0.01

2.3

0.54

0.91

-0.07

0.18

2.1

1.4

1.3

-1.05

0.64

0.62

1.1

0.97

0.1
-1.08

TN
AZ

0.53

RI
CT

1.8
PA
OH

0.44

NE
NV

-7.89

1.8

1.6

4.4

5.6

0.74

3.1

0.59

0.94

9.5

0.93

0.7
HI

1.1

0.11

0.39

0.6

2.2

1.5

2.5

0.11

0.6

0.38

0.2

0.7

0.04
UT

2.8

0.31

0.25

0.14

0.41

1.2

0.22

1.3

0.27

0.41

0.18

3.4

0.47

0.35
0.44

0.03

0.16

0.37

TN
AZ

0.59

RI
CT

0.98

NE
UT

0.74

0.81

1.6

2.8

0.1

0.21

NV
CA

1.03

0.29

0.15

such as Nevada, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont lose population and thus experience a decline,
or a negligible increase, in GDP. These neighboring states, in fact, are the only states that experience a
decline in real GDP in this case (apart from Tennessee which is a¤ected by the growth of the sector in North
Carolina). All of the e¤ects we have described are in‡uenced in turn by the size of the stocks of land and
structures in those states. In that sense, the geographic distribution of economic activity determines the
impact of sectoral fundamental productivity changes. Speci…cally, the aggregate impact of these changes is
mitigated by these patterns, with an elasticity of aggregate GDP to fundamental productivity changes in
the computer industry which is slightly lower than one.
Other industries, such as Transportation Equipment, are less concentrated geographically and yield lower
elasticities of changes in aggregate GDP with respect to changes in fundamental sectoral TFP. In the case
of Transportation Equipment, this elasticity is 0.55 (it is 0.54 in construction which is even more dispersed
geographically, see Figure 3). The transportation industry is interesting in that although relatively small,
with a value added share of just 1.84 percent, it is also more centrally located in space with Michigan and other
Midwestern states being historically important producers in that sector. The implications of a productivity
increase in the Transportation Equipment sector for other states is presented in Figure 14 panels b, d,
and f. Changes in measured TFP are clearly more dispersed across sectors and regions than for Computer
and Electronics, although the largest increases in measured TFP are located in states involved in automobile
production such as Michigan. In contrast to the case of Computer and Electronics, all regions see an increase
in state GDP (except Vermont, Kentucky, and Wyoming which decline slightly) and much smaller population
movements take place. In fact, Midwestern states, including Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana, tend to lose
population while western and eastern states gain workers. To understand why, note that transportation
equipment is an important material input into a wide range of industries. Therefore, increases in productivity
in that sector bene…t many other sectors as well. Although, in this case, a fundamental productivity increase
does not induce much migration, aggregate gains from the change are lower than in other sectors, since the
change strains resources in some of already relatively congested regions. The result is a lower elasticity of
real GDP to productivity gains in the Transportation sector compared to the Computer and Electronics
industry, speci…cally 0.55. The elasticity of welfare to the productivity change is equal to 0.92, also smaller
than the 0.97 for the Computer and Electronics sector.
5.3 An Application: The Productivity Boom in Computers and Electronics in California
As should now be clear, the model we have laid out allows us to calculate the regional, sectoral, and
aggregate elasticities of TFP, GDP, and employment with respect to a productivity change in any sector in
any region. As an example, we end this section by tracing out the e¤ects of fundamental TFP changes in
the Computers and Electronics Industry in California on other U.S. regions and sectors for an average year
over the period 2002-2007.
The state of California is well known for its role as the home of prominent information and technology …rms,
Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and many others, and generally as a center for computer innovation.
In 2007, California alone accounted for 24% or essentially a quarter of all employment in the Computers
and Electronics industry. For comparison, the states with the next two largest shares of employment in that
sector were Texas and Massachusetts with 8% and 6% respectively, while most other states (37) had shares
of employment in Computers and Electronics of less than 2%. Despite the dot-com bust of 2001 causing a
loss of signi…cant market capitalization for many …rms in Computers and Electronics, California then saw

Fig. 15. Regional e¤ects to a 31 percent fundamental productivity change in Comp. and Elec. in California
a: Regional TFP e¤ects (percent)
NH

0.13
WA

0.29
OR

-0.14

0.02

0.01

NE
NV

0.02

0.04

0.001

0.07

0.08

0.85

-0.01

0.01

0.004

0.01

-0.01
0.02
WV

0.03

TN
AZ

-0.004

0.01

0.03

-0.02

0.01

-0.01

0.01

-0.03

0.003
OH

0.02

0.02
0.05

MA
RI

0.02

0.05

-0.09

0.01

0.02

-0.001

0.002

-0.01

-0.002

0.03

0.002

0.01

0.02
MS

0.003

-0.04

-0.01

-0.004

b: Regional GDP e¤ects (percent)
NH

-0.39
WA

1.05
OR

-1.53

0.04

-0.21

-0.15

-0.04

-0.26
KS

-0.13

4.3

-0.02

-0.07

-0.14

-0.25

-0.03
-0.58
WV

0.15

TN
AZ

-0.91

-0.15

0.01

-1.07

-0.25

0.01

-0.03

-0.46

-0.19

-0.44
OH

-0.03

-0.1

-0.87
0.19

NE
UT

MA
RI

-0.002

-0.14
NV

-0.91

0.05

0.13

-0.33

-0.93

-0.13

-0.31

-0.12

0.27

-0.17

0.12

-0.07

-0.23
MS

0.28

-0.9

-0.73

0.01

c: Regional Employment e¤ects (percent)
NH

-0.61
WA

0.75
OR

-1.96

-0.15

-0.35

-0.24

-0.22

-0.42
KS

-0.39

-0.3

-0.58
NJ

PA
IL

-0.6
OH

-0.17

-0.13

-0.2

-0.76
WV

0.05

TN
AZ

-1.24

-0.3

-0.14

-1.4

-0.44

0.12

-0.23
AL

-0.3

0.03

-0.21

-0.38
MS

-1.3

-0.09

0.24

-0.16
MD

-0.39

-0.1

-0.17

-0.39

-0.25
VA

-1.06
0.12

-0.36

MA
RI

-0.11

-0.37
NV

-0.95

-0.07

0.03

-0.46

-1.2

-0.23

-0.91

over the next …ve years annual TFP changes in that sector on the order of 31% on average. Given the
continually rising importance of Computers and Electronics as an input to other sectors, and the importance
of California as a home to computer innovation, we now describe the way in which TFP changes in that
sector and state propagated to all other sectors and states of the U.S. economy.
Figure 15 shows the e¤ects of observed changes in TFP in the Computers and Electronics industry speci…c
to California, a sector that amounts to 5.5% of value added in that state, on measured regional TFP, GDP,
and employment in other regions and states. The regional e¤ect on measured TFP, GDP, or employment,
can by computed by multiplying the size of the productivity change in California by the relevant elasticity in
the region of interest.22 Thus, a 31% fundamental TFP increase in Computers and Electronics in California,
which corresponds to a 14.6% yearly increase in measured TFP, results in a 0.85% increase in overall measured
TFP in that state. This …nding re‡ects in part the weight of Computers and Electronics relative to other
sectors in California, and in part the dampening e¤ects associated with negative selection, whereby newer
varieties have relatively lower idiosyncratic productivities, and the fact that fundamental productivity scales
value added rather than gross output. States in the West that compete with California, such as Arizona,
Oregon, and Idaho, now experience losses in TFP on the order of -0.01%, -0.14% and -0.01% respectively.
Recall from Section 5.2 that, when a productivity change to Computer and Electronics a¤ects all regions,
the latter states were those that experienced the largest gains in measured TFP. Other states bene…ted
from the productivity increase in Computer and Electronics mainly through a positive selection e¤ect that
left remaining varieties with relatively higher productivities. When the TFP increase in Computer and
Electronics is speci…c to California, states that are close by and compete with California now experience
productivity losses.
Following the change to Computer and Electronics in California, population tends to relocate to California.
In addition, since the productivity change is more localized in space, this relocation is larger than that
observed for a change in Computers and Electronics that a¤ected all regions. Population tends to migrate
mainly from regions that compete directly with California. Therefore, a more localized change in a given
industry results in a larger GDP increase in California and generally in larger declines in other states.
Observe, in particular, that declines in regional GDP tend to be larger not only in neighboring states such as
Oregon (-1.53%), Arizona (-0.91%), and New Mexico (-1.07%), but also in states farther out that compete
directly with California in Computers and Electronics such as Massachusetts (-0.87%).
Aside from the e¤ects related to Computers and Electronics, the productivity improvement in California
in that industry also means that California now possesses a lower comparative advantage in other sectors.
Other states, therefore, bene…t through sectors not related to Computers and Electronics, especially where
these other sectors are relatively large such as for Petroleum and Coal in the states of Washington and West
Virginia. These other sectors also see a reduction in material costs. Ultimately, while employment in the
computer industry falls in the states of Washington and West Virginia, other sectors such as Petroleum
and Coal, Non-Metallic Minerals, and non-tradeables, experience an increase in employment that more
than o¤sets the decline in employment in computers. Thus, Washington, but also a state as far away from
California as West Virginia with little production in Computers and Electronics, see their GDP rise by 1.05%
and 0.15% respectively.
2 2 In this section we compute all the results by feeding the annual observed change in fundamental TFP between 2002 and
2007 into the model. Alternatively, we could have computed these results by multiplying the fundamental TFP changes by
the relevant regional or sectoral elasticities, as we have argued in the text. The di¤erence between both calculations is related
to the model’s non-linearities. In this case, we …nd that the di¤erences between the two methods are negligible, with a mean
absolute deviation for the regional TFP, GDP and labor reallocation of 0.01%, 0.04% and 0.04%, respectively.

6. THE IMPORTANCE OF GEOGRAPHIC DISTANCE AS A TRADE BARRIER
Once regional trade is taken into account, selection plays an essential role in understanding the impact
of regional and sectoral productivity changes on aggregate measured TFP, GDP, and welfare. The two
fundamental determinants of intermediate-goods-…rm selection in a given region-sector pair (n; j) are i) its
fundamental productivity, and ii) the bilateral regional trade barriers it faces. Furthermore, the international
trade literature has identi…ed geographic distance as the most important barrier to international trade
‡ows (see e.g. Disdier and Head 2008). The importance of the selection mechanism emphasized by trade
considerations, therefore, is closely related to the role of distance as a deterrent to regional trade. In this
section, we evaluate the importance of geographic distance for aggregate TFP and GDP in the U.S. We do so
by …rst separating the trade costs of moving goods across U.S. states into a geographic distance component
and other regional trade barriers. We then quantify the aggregate e¤ects arising from a reduction in each of
these components of trade costs.
6.1 Gains from Reductions in Trade Barriers
To construct our measure of geographic distance, we use data on average miles per shipments between any
two states for all 50 states and for the 15 tradable sectors considered in this paper. The data is available from
the CFS which tracks ton-miles and tons shipped (in thousands) between states by NAICS manufacturing
industries. We compute average miles per shipment by dividing ton-miles by tons shipped between states in
each of our sectors. Average miles per shipment for goods shipped from each region of the U.S. range from
996 miles for goods shipped from Indiana to 4,154 miles for goods shipped from Hawaii.
To identify bilateral trade costs, we rely on the gravity equation implied by the model.23 Using Equation
(19), and taking the product of sector j goods shipped between two regions in one direction, and sector j
goods shipped in the opposite direction, and dividing this product by the domestic expenditure shares in
each region, we obtain that
j
ni
j
nn

j
in
j
ii

j
j
ni in

Assuming that the cost of trading across regions is symmetric,24 we can then infer bilateral trade costs for
each sector j as
j
ni

j
ni
j
nn

j
in
j
ii

1=2

Following Anderson and Van Wincoop (2003) and others, we explore how domestic bilateral trade costs
vary with geographic distance using a log-linear relationship. Thus, we estimate the following trade-cost
equation
log

j
ni

log djni =dj;min
+
ni

+ "jni ;

(32)

where djni denotes average miles per shipment from region i to region n in sector j; which we normalize by
the minimum bilateral distance in that sector, dj;min
.25 Consistent with evidence from Waugh (2010) based
ni
2 3 This approach is commonly used in the international trade literature. See, for example, Head and Ries (2001), or Eaton
and Kortum (2002).
2 4 Here, we follow the literature that infers trade costs from observable trade ‡ows, as in Head and Ries (2001) and Anderson
and van Wincoop (2003).
2 5 This normalization allows us to estimate a sectoral distance coe¢ cient that is comparable across sectors. Note that this is
equivalent to adding a distance-sectoral …xed e¤ect to the speci…cation.

on price data, we further control for exporter …xed e¤ects,

The term "jni is an error assumed to be

orthogonal to our distance measure. OLS estimates from this regression may be used to decompose domestic
bilateral trade costs,

j
ni ,

into a distance component, (

), and other trade barriers (
log djni =dj;min
ni

+ "jni ).

We then use this decomposition to calculate the e¤ects of a reduction in distance and other trade barriers
on measured TFP, GDP, and welfare.
Table 2. : Reduction of trade cost across U.S. states
Geographic distance Other barriers
Aggregate TFP gains
50.98%
3.62%
Aggregate GDP gains
125.88%
10.54%
Welfare gains
58.83%
10.10%
Table 2 presents our …ndings. First, the table shows that the aggregate economic cost of domestic trade
barriers is large. This …nding is at the basis of our emphasis on the geography of economic activity. Furthermore, the table shows that the e¤ect of eliminating barriers related to distance is almost an order of
magnitude larger than that of eliminating other trade barriers. Therefore, focusing on distance as the main
obstacle to the ‡ow of goods across states is a good approximation. The latter observation is reminiscent
of similar …ndings in the international trade literature, and it is noteworthy that distance plays such as a
large role even domestically. In addition, changes in TFP and welfare in Table 2 are noticeably smaller
than changes in GDP. As emphasized throughout the analysis, this …nding re‡ects the e¤ects of migration
in the presence of local …xed factors. In the longer run, to the extent that some of these local factors are
accumulated, such as structures, di¤erences between TFP or welfare and GDP changes may be attenuated.
It is important to keep in mind that our counterfactual experiment in this section has no bearing on policy
since reducing distance to zero is infeasible. Reductions in the importance of distance as a trade barrier
may arise, however, with technological improvements related to the shipping of goods. Still, the exercise
emphasizes the current importance of regional trade costs and geography in understanding changes in output
and productivity. Put another way, the geography of economic activity in 2007 was, and likely still is, an
essential determinant of the behavior of TFP, GDP, and welfare, in response to fundamental changes in
productivity.
7. CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this paper, we study the e¤ects of disaggregated productivity changes in a model that recognizes
explicitly the role of geographical factors in determining allocations. This geographical element is manifested
in several ways.
First, following a long tradition in macroeconomics, we take account of interactions between sectors, but we
further recognize that these interactions take place over potentially large distances by way of costly regional
trade. Thus, borrowing from the recent international trade literature, we incorporate multiple regions and
transport costs in our analysis. As shown in Section 6, the importance of transport costs is such that, were
they to disappear, GDP would more than double while measured productivity and welfare would increase by
50%. Second, we consider the mobility and spatial distribution of di¤erent factors of production. Speci…cally,
while labor tends to be mobile across regions, other factors, such as land and structures, are …xed locally and
unevenly distributed across space. We calibrate the model to match data on pairwise trade ‡ows across U.S.
states by industry and other regional and industry data. Given this calibration, we are then able to provide

a quantitative assessment of how di¤erent regions and sectors of the U.S. economy adjust to disaggregated
productivity disturbances. Furthermore, to highlight the role of the elasticities we present, we carried out
an application that describes how the large gains in fundamental productivity during the period 2002-2007
in the Computers and Electronics industry in California a¤ected all other regions and sectors of the U.S.
economy.
We …nd that disaggregated productivity changes can have dramatically di¤erent aggregate quantitative
implications depending on the regions and sectors a¤ected. Furthermore, particular disaggregated fundamental changes have very heterogenous e¤ects across di¤erent regions and sectors. These e¤ects arise in part
because disaggregated productivity disturbances lead to endogenous changes in the pattern of trade. These
changes in turn are governed by a selection e¤ect that ultimately determines which regions produce what
types of goods. Furthermore, labor is a mobile factor so that regions that become more productive tend to
see an in‡ow of population. This in‡ow increases the burden on local …xed resources in those regions and,
therefore, attenuates the direct e¤ects of any productivity increases. Furthermore, the di¤erent estimated
ownership structures of the …xed factor across states implies that changes in the returns to these factors
are unequally distributed across regions, thereby exacerbating the role of geography in determining aggregate and regional elasticities. These implications of the model are the direct result of the observed trade
imbalances across states.
In principle, as more data become available on domestic trade ‡ows, future work might help identify TFP
changes disaggregated by regions and sectors over an extended period of time. The resulting disaggregated
disturbances might then be decomposed into common components (aggregate shocks), components that are
purely sector-speci…c, or components that are purely region-speci…c. Estimates of the relative contributions
of these di¤erent components to aggregate economic activity could then be obtained. These considerations,
however, remain independent of our calculations of elasticities of economic outcomes to disaggregated productivity changes. Policy analysis of particular events, as well as any assessment of the e¤ects of changes
at the sectoral or regional level, such as those presented for the computer industry in California, necessarily
bene…ts from such elasticities.
Future work might further explore how local factors that can be gradually adjusted over time, such as
private structures or infrastructure in the form of public capital, a¤ect how regional and sectoral variables
interact in responding to productivity disturbances. While the accumulation of local factors might attenuate
somewhat the e¤ects of migration, these e¤ects depend on the stock of structures which moves slowly over
time. The quantitative implications of this adjustment margin, therefore, are not immediate. The framework
we develop might also be extended to assess the e¤ects of di¤erent regional policies, such as state taxes or
regulations, or the e¤ects of localized exogenous changes in the stock of structures resulting from extreme
weather. Finally, dynamic adjustments in trade imbalances would also be informative with respect to the
behavior of regional trade de…cits in the face of fundamental productivity disturbances, and how this behavior
then relates to macroeconomic adjustments. For now, this paper suggests that the regional characteristics
of an economy appear essential to the study of the macroeconomic implications of productivity changes.

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APPENDIX
A.1 Equilibrium Conditions with Exogenous Inter-regional Trade De…cit
rn H n
Income of households in region n is given by In = wn + +(1
sn ; where sn = Sn =Ln represents
n ) Ln
the part of observed per-capita trade surplus in region n unexplained by the model: Utility of an agent in
region n is given by U = PInn : Using the equilibrium condition rn Hn = 1 n wn Ln , and the de…nition of
n

! n = (rn = n )
expressed as

(wn = (1

n ))

, we can express wages as
Hn
Ln

U=
where un = n =Ln = ( n rn Hn
XN
Ln = L; to solve for U

!n
Pn

= !n

un
Pn

Hn
Ln

. Therefore, U may be

sn
;
Pn

Ln ) =Ln : Solving for Ln and use the labor market clearing condition

n=1

1 XN
n=1
L

!n
(Hn )
Pn

Ln1

Sn
Pn

Finally we can use these conditions to obtain,
Hn
Ln = X
N

i=1

!n
Pn U +un +sn

The expenditure shares are given by

j
ni

i1=

!i
Pi U +ui +si

i1= i L:

h
i j
j j
xji jni
Ti
= N h
P j j i j j
xi ni
Ti

j
i

i=1

the input bundle and prices by
xjn

= Bnj rnn wn1

Pnj

j 1
n

j
n

k=1

N h
X

xji

j
ni

i=1

Regional market clearing in …nal goods is given by
X
X
kj
k
k
j
Xnj =
! n (Hn )
n
in Xi +
k

Pnk

jk
n

Tij

(Ln )

j
i

Trade balance then is given by

j=1

Xnj +

+ Sn =

j=1

i=1

j
j
in Xi :

Note that combining trade balance with goods market clearing we end up with the following equilibrium
condition,
X
XN j j
1
j
n
! n (Hn ) n (Ln )
=
n
in Xi :
j

i=1

A.2 Equilibrium Conditions in Relative Terms
Input bundle (JN equations):
j
n

x
bjn = (^
!n )

Price index (JN equations):

Pbnj =

j
ni

i=1

Trade shares (JN 2 equations)

j0
ni

Labor mobility condition (N equations):

^n =
L
X

k=1

bji
bjni x

x
bji j
bni
Pbnj

j
ni

(Pbnk )
j

j
T^i

(A. 1)

j
i

j
T^i

(A. 2)

(A. 3)

!
^i
^ +(1 ' )^
'i P^i U
i bi

!
^n
^ +(1 ' )^
'n P^n U
n bn
i

kj
n

(A. 4)

Regional market clearing in …nal goods (JN equations):
Xnj0 =

k=1

k;j
n

i=1

k0
k0
in Xi

^n
!
^n L

(In Ln +

+ Sn )

Sn0

0
n

(A. 5)

P^nj

Labor market clearing (N equations)
^n
!
^n L
where ^bn =

u0n +s0n
un +sn ;

'n =

^=
;U
n +Sn

1
1+

Ln In

(Ln In +
1
L

+ Sn ) =
^n
1 !
'n P^n

^n
L

^ n (N ); Xnj0 (JN );
The total number of unknowns is: !
^ n (N ); L
a total of 2N + 3JN + JN 2 equations and unknowns.

j
n

0j
0j
in Xi ;

^ n^
1 'n L
bn
'n
P^n
P^nj (JN ); j0
ni (J
n

, and Pbn =
N

j=1

N ); x
^jn (JN ): For

A.3 Computation: Solving for Counterfactuals
j
Consider an exogenous change in Sn0 ; bjni and/or Tbni
: To solve for the counterfactual equilibrium in relative
changes, we proceed as follows: Guess the relative change in regional factor prices !
^.
Step 1. Obtain P^nj and x
bjn consistent with !
^ using (A:1) and (A:2).
0
Step 2. Solve for trade shares, jni (^
! ), consistent with the change in factor prices using P^nj (^
! ) and
j
x
bn (^
! ) as well as the de…nition of trade shares given by (A:3).
^ n (^
Step 3. Solve for the change in labor across regions consistent with the change in factor prices L
!) ;
j
j
^
given Pn (^
! ) ; and x
^n (^
! ) ; using (A:4).
0
Step 4. Solve for expenditures consistent with the change in factor prices Xnj (^
! ) ; using (A:5) ; which
0
constitutes N J linear equations in N J unknown, fXnj (^
! )gN J . This can be solved through matrix
^ n (^
inversion. Observe that carrying out this step …rst requires having solved for L
!) :
Step 5. Obtain a new guess for the change in factor prices, !
^ n , using
P j X 0j
(^
! ) Xi0j (^
!)
j n
i in
:
!
^n =
1
n
^ n (^
L
!)
(Ln In + n + Sn )

Repeat Steps 1 through 5 until jj^
!

!
^ jj < ":
42

A.4 Data and Calibration
We calibrate the model to the 50 U.S. states and a total of 26 sectors classi…ed according to the North
American Industry Classi…cation System (NAICS), 15 of which are tradable goods, 10 service sectors, and
construction. We assume that all service sectors and construction are non-tradable. We present below a
list of the sectors that we use, and describe how we combine a subset of these sectors to ease computations.
As stated in the main text, carrying out structural quantitative exercises on the e¤ects of disaggregated
n
oN;N;J
fundamental changes requires data on In ; Ln ; Sn ; jni
; as well as values for the parameters
n=1;i=1;j=1

;

jk N;J;J
n n=1;j=1;k=1 .

We now describe the main aspects of the data.

A.4.1 Regional Employment and Income.—
We set L = 1 so that, for each n 2 f1; :::; N g, Ln is interpreted as the share of state n’s employment in
total employment. Regional employment data is obtained from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA),
with aggregate employment across all states summing to 137.3 million in 2007. We obtain In by calculating
total value added in each state and then dividing the result by total population for that state in 2007.
A.4.2 Interregional Trade Flows and Surpluses.—
To measure the shares of expenditures in intermediates from region-sector (i; j) for each state n, jni ; we
use data from the Commodity Flow Survey (CFS). The dataset tracks pairwise trade ‡ows across all 50
states for 18 sectors of the U.S. economy (three of these are aggregated for a total of 15 tradable goods
sectors as described in A.4.5). The CFS contains data on the total value of trade across all states which
amounts to 5.2 trillion in 2007 dollars. The most recent CFS data covers the year 2007 and was released in
2012. This explains our choice of 2007 as the baseline year of our analysis.
Even though the CFS aims to quantify only domestic trade, and leaves out all international transactions,
some imports to a local destination that are then traded in another domestic transaction are potentially
included. To exclude this imported part of gross output, we calculate U.S. domestic consumption of domestic
goods by subtracting exports from gross production for each NAICS sector using sectoral measures of gross
output from the BEA and exports from the U.S. Census. We then compare the sectoral domestic shipment of
goods implied by the CFS for each sector to the aggregate measure of domestic consumption. As expected,
the CFS domestic shipment of goods is larger than the domestic consumption measure for all sectors, by a
factor ranging from 1 to 1.4. We thus adjust the CFS tables proportionally so that they represent the total
amount of domestic consumption of domestic goods.
A row sum in a CFS trade table associated with a given sector j represents total exports of sector j goods
from that state to all other states. Conversely, a column sum in that trade table gives total imports of
sector j goods to a given state from all other states. The di¤erence between exports and imports allows us
to directly compute domestic regional trade surpluses in all U.S. states. Given f n gN 1 ; we use information
on
Ln , where =
P value added
P by regions to calculate regional national portfolio balances, n = n rn Hn
r
H
=
L
:
We
then
solve
for
fS
g
as
the
di¤erence
between
observed
trade
surplus
in the data
i
i
i
i
n
N
1
i
i
and the one implied by regional national portfolio balances. We then solve for f n gN 1 by minimizing the
sum square of fSn gN 1 :
A.4.3 Value Added Shares and Shares of Material Use.—
In order to obtain value added shares observe that, for a particular sector j, each row-sum of the correnP
oN
N
j
j
.
sponding adjusted CFS trade table equals gross output for that sector in each region,
i=1 in Xi
n=1

Hence, we divide value added from the BEA in region-sector pair (n; j) by its corresponding measure of
gross output from the trade table to obtain the share of value added in gross output by region and sector
for all tradeable goods, f jn gN;15
n=1;j=1 . For the 11 non-tradeable sectors, gross output is not available at the
sectoral level by state. In those sectors, we assume that the value added shares are constant across states and
equal to the national share of value added in gross output , jn = j 8n 2 f1; :::; N g and j > 15. Aggregate
measures of gross output and value added in non-tradeable sectors are obtained from the BEA.
While material input shares are available from the BEA by sector, they are not disaggregated by state.

Given the structure of our model, it is nevertheless possible to infer region-speci…c material input shares
from a national input-output (IO) table and other available data. The BEA Use table gives the value of
inputs from each industry used by every other industry at the aggregate level. This use table is available at
5 year intervals, the most recent of which was released for 2002 data. A column sum of the BEA Use table
gives total dollar payments from a given sector to all other sectors. Therefore, at the national level, we can
jk
compute
, the share of material inputs from sector k in total payments to materials by sector j. Since
PN
jk
=
1, one may then construct the share of payments from sector j to material inputs from sector
k=1
j
jk
k, for each state n, as jk
where recall that jn ’s are region-sector speci…c value added shares.
n = (1
n)
A.4.4 Share of Final Good Expenditure.—
The share of income spent on goods from di¤erent sectors is calculated as follows,
P k;j
k
Y j + M j Ej
1
Yk
k
j
P
;
=P
j
j
k;j (1
k) Y k)
Ej
j (Y + M
k

where E j denotes total exports from the U.S. to the rest of the world, M j represents total imports to the
U.S., and all intermediate input shares are national averages.
A.4.5 Payments to Labor and Structure Shares.—
As noted in the previous section, we assume that the share of payments to labor in value added, f1 n gN
n=1 ,
is constant across sectors. Disaggregated data on compensation of employees from the BEA is not available
by individual sector in every state. To calculate 1
n in a given region, we …rst sum data on compensation of
employees across all available sectors in that region, and divide this sum by value added in the corresponding
region. The resulting measure, denoted by 1
n , overestimates the value added share of the remaining
factor in our model, n , associated with land and structures. That is, part of the remaining factor used in
production involves equipment in addition to …xed structures. Accordingly, to adjust these shares, we rely
on estimates from Greenwood, Hercowitz, and Krusell (1997) who measure separately the share of labor,
structures, and equipment, in value added for the U.S. economy. These shares amount to 70 percent, 13
percent, and 17 percent respectively. We thus use these estimates to infer the share of structures in value
added across regions by taking the share of non-labor value added by region, n , subtracting the share of
equipment, and renormalizing so that the new shares add to one. Speci…cally, we calculate the share of land
and structures as n = ( n 0:17)=0:83: Since our model explicitly takes materials into account, we assign
the share of equipment to that of materials. In other words, we adjust the share of value added to 0:83 jn ,
and adjust all calculations above accordingly. In this way, our quantitative exercise uses shares for labor as
well as for land and structures at the regional level that are consistent with aggregate value added shares in
the U.S.
A.4.6 List of Sectors.—
The paper uses data from the Commodity Flow Survey (CFS), jointly produced by the Census and the
Bureau of Transportation. The trade tables resulting from the CFS was released for the …rst time in
December 2010 and last revised in 2012 for data pertaining to 2007. Each trade table corresponds to a
particular sector and is a 50 50 matrix whose entries represent pairwise trade ‡ows for that sector among
all U.S. states. The CFS contains comprehensive data for 18 manufacturing sectors with a total value of
trade across all states amounting to 5.2 trillion in 2007 dollars. These sectors are Food Product & Beverage
and Tobacco Product, (NAICS 311 & 312), Textile and Textile Product Mills, (NAICS 313 & 314), Apparel
& Leather and Allied Product, (NAICS 315 & 316), Wood Product, (NAICS 321), Paper, (NAICS 322),
Printing and Related support activities, (NAICS 323), Petroleum & Coal Products, (NAICS 324), Chemical,
(NAICS 325), Plastics & Rubber Products, (NAICS 326), Nonmetallic Mineral Product, (NAICS 327),
Primary Metal, (NAICS 331), Fabricated Metal Product, (NAICS 332), Machinery, (NAICS 333), Computer
and Electronic Product, (NAICS 334), Electrical Equipment and Appliance, (NAICS 335), Transportation
Equipment, (NAICS 336), Furniture & Related Product, (NAICS 337), Miscellaneous, (NAICS 339). We
aggregate 3 subsectors. Sectors Textile and Textile Product Mills (NAICS 313 & 314) together with Apparel
& Leather and Allied Product (NAICS 315 & 316), Wood Product (NAICS 321) with Paper (NAICS 322)

and sectors Primary Metal (NAICS 331) with Fabricated Metal Product (NAICS 332). We end up with a
total of 15 manufacturing tradable sectors.
The list of non-tradable sectors are: Construction, Wholesale and Retail Trade, (NAICS 42 - 45), Transport
Services, (NAICS 481 - 488), Information Services, (NAICS 511 - 518), Finance and Insurance, (NAICS 521
- 525), Real Estate, (NAICS 531 - 533), Education, (NAICS 61), Health Care, (NAICS 621 - 624), Arts and
Recreation, (NAICS 711 - 713), Accom. and Food Services, (NAICS 721 - 722), Other Services, (NAICS 493
& 541 & 55 & 561 & 562 & 811 - 814)
A.4.7 Sectoral Distribution of Productivities.—
We obtain the dispersion of productivities from Caliendo and Parro (2014). They compute this parameter
for 20 tradable sectors, using data at two-digit level of the third revision of the International Standard
Industrial Classi…cation (ISIC Rev. 3). We match their sectors to our NAICS 2007 sectors using the
information available in concordance tables. In …ve of our sectors Caliendo and Parro present estimates
at an either more aggregated or disaggregated level. When Caliendo and Parro report separates estimates
for sub-sectors which we aggregate into a single sector, we use their data to compute the dispersion of
productivity in our aggregate sector. In cases where a sector in our data is integrated to another sector in
Caliendo and Parro, we input that elasticity.
The dispersion of productivity for our sector “Wood and Paper”(NAICS 321-322) is estimated separately
for wood products and paper products in Caliendo and Parro. In this case, using their data we proceed to
estimate the aggregate dispersion of productivity for these two sub-sectors. Similarly, they present separate
estimates for primary metals and fabricated metals (NAICS 331-332), thus we use their data to estimate
the aggregate elasticity of these two sectors. We also estimate the dispersion of productivity for Transport
Equipment (NAICS 336), which is divided into motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, and other transport
equipment in Caliendo and Parro. Our sector “Printing and Related Support Activities” (NAICS 323) is
estimated together with pulp and paper products (ISIC3 21-22) in Caliendo and Parro, thus we input that
estimate. Similarly, Furniture (NAICS 337) is estimated together with other manufacturing (ISIC 3 36-37)
in Caliendo and Parro, and therefore we input that estimated elasticity in the Furniture sector.
A.4.8 Average Miles per Shipment by Sector.—
The data on average mileage of all shipments from one state to another by NAICS manufacturing industries
comes from the special release of the Commodity Flow Survey.

Full text of Working Papers (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond) : The Impact of Regional and Sectoral Productivity Changes on the U.S. Economy, Working Paper 13-14R

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