Applied Microeconomics
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Applied Microeconomics
The Applied Microeconomics research group unites researchers working on a broad array of topics within such areas as labour economics, economics of education, health economics, family economics, urban economics, environmental economics, and the economics of science and innovation. The group operates in close collaboration with the CAGE Research Centre.
The group participates in the CAGE seminar on Applied Economics, which runs weekly on Tuesdays at 2:15pm. Students and faculty members of the group present their ongoing work in two brown bag seminars, held weekly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 1pm. Students, in collaboration with faculty members, also organise a bi-weekly reading group in applied econometrics on Thursdays at 1pm. The group organises numerous events throughout the year, including the Research Away Day and several thematic workshops.
Our activities
Work in Progress seminars
Tuesdays and Wednesdays 1-2pm
Students and faculty members of the group present their work in progress in two brown bag seminars. See below for a detailed scheduled of speakers.
Applied Econometrics reading group
Thursdays (bi-weekly) 1-2pm
Organised by students in collaboration with faculty members. See the Events calendar below for further details
People
Academics
Academics associated with the Applied Microeconomics Group are:
Research Students
Events
CWIP (CAGE Work in Progress) - Amrita Kulka
Long-Run Agglomeration: Evidence from County Seat Wars
Urban areas are shaped by their size, perhaps particularly so over the long run. We study how historical shocks to the size of towns in the American West affected long-run economic outcomes, using elections which determined county seats (capitals) in the 1800s and a regression discontinuity (RD) design. High rates of mobility in the frontier period meant that these elections quintupled population density in winning locations, ultimately determining where 15% of a county resides today. Although the county seat provides relatively few government jobs, we show that the increased town size reshaped their modern local economies in several important ways. First, reported IRS income increases with an elasticity of 0.15 with respect to density. Second, these gains are distributed primarily to the upper end of the income distribution, leading to a 2.9pp increase in the top 5% income share. Finally, spillover effects onto nearby communities are minimal, cutting against notions of positive amenity provision and negative agglomeration shadows.