Unpacking Aggregate Welfare in a Spatial Economy

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Donald, Eric; Fukui, Masao; Miyauchi, Yuhei
• 署名单位: Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); University of Pittsburgh; Boston University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdag021
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: identification; geography; GROWTH; TRADE; LEVEL

摘要

How do regional productivity shocks or transportation infrastructure improvements affect aggregate welfare? In a general class of spatial equilibrium models, we provide a formula for aggregate welfare changes, decomposed into terms associated with (i) technology [Fogel (1964), Railroads and American Economic Growth (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press), Hulten (1978) Growth Accounting with Intermediate Inputs, The Review of Economic Studies, 45, 511-518], (ii) spatial dispersion of marginal utility, (iii) fiscal externalities, (iv) technological externalities, and (v) redistribution. We further use this decomposition to derive a general formula for optimal spatial transfers and show that, whenever optimal transfers are in place, the technology term alone captures the aggregate welfare effects of technological shocks. We apply our framework to study welfare gains from improving the US highway network. We find that changes in the spatial dispersion of marginal utility are as important as technological externalities in accounting for the deviations from the Fogel-Hulten benchmark to assess welfare gains.