Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2015
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines

By: Edward L. Glaeser, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:24
ShareBar

Abstract

We study entrepreneurship and growth through the lens of U.S. cities. Initial entrepreneurship correlates strongly with urban employment growth, but endogeneity bedevils interpretation. Chinitz (1961) hypothesized that coal mines near cities led to specialization in industries, like steel, with significant scale economies and that those big firms subsequently damped entrepreneurship across several generations. Proximity to historical mining deposits is associated with reduced entrepreneurship for cities in the 1970s and onward in industries unrelated to mining. We use historical mines as an instrument for our modern entrepreneurship measures and find a persistent link between entrepreneurship and city employment growth.

Keywords

Industrial Organization; Chinitz; Agglomeration; Clusters; Cities; Mines; Industry Clusters; Entrepreneurship; City; Mining; Mining Industry; Pittsburgh

Citation

Glaeser, Edward L., Sari Pekkala Kerr, and William R. Kerr. "Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 13-015, August 2012. (Revised May 2015.)
  • Read Now

About The Author

William R. Kerr

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

Related Work

    • Review of Economics and Statistics

    Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines

    By: Edward L. Glaeser, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
    • 2015
    • Faculty Research

    Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines

    By: Edward L. Glaeser, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
Related Work
  • Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines By: Edward L. Glaeser, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
  • Entrepreneurship and Urban Growth: An Empirical Assessment with Historical Mines By: Edward L. Glaeser, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College