We estimate a model of urban productivity in which the agglomeration effect of density is enhanced by a metropolitan area's stock of human capital. Estimation accounts for potential biases due to the endogeneity of density and industrial composition effects. Using new information on output per worker for U.S. metropolitan areas along with a measure of density that accounts for the spatial distribution of population, we find that a doubling of density increases productivity by 2 to 4 percent. Consistent with theories of learning and knowledge spillovers in cities, we demonstrate that the elasticity of average labor productivity with respect to density increases with human capital. Metropolitan areas with a human capital stock one standard deviation below the mean realize no productivity gain, while doubling density in metropolitan areas with a human capital stock one standard deviation above the mean yields productivity benefits that are about twice the average. JEL Codes: R12, R30, J24, O40

We estimate a model of urban productivity in which the agglomeration effect of density is enhanced by a metropolitan area's stock of human capital. Estimation accounts for potential biases due to the endogeneity of density and industrial composition effects. Using new information on output per worker for U.S. metropolitan areas along with a measure of density that accounts for the spatial distribution of population, we find that a doubling of density increases productivity by 2 to 4 percent. Consistent with theories of learning and knowledge spillovers in cities, we demonstrate that the elasticity of average labor productivity with respect to density increases with human capital. Metropolitan areas with a human capital stock one standard deviation below the mean realize no productivity gain, while doubling density in metropolitan areas with a human capital stock one standard deviation above the mean yields productivity benefits that are about twice the average. JEL Codes: R12, R30, J24, O40

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This article explores the postcolonial state’s experiments with logistics through the construction of industrial corridors. Through the concept of “corridor economy” it traces the shift from special economic zones to corridors, with a special focus on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) to understand how land, labor, and capital are being organized through new governance strategies. By closely analyzing the violent labor unrest that broke out in the Maruti Suzuki plant in Manesar, an industrial center of prominence in the DMIC project, the article explores the ways the corridor economy model is being projected as the future of development. In so doing, the article positions this model as a neoliberal institution that marks new frontiers of capital and asks how the struggles crisscrossing the spaces of the DMIC reveal the paradoxical and heterogeneous political constellations of capital-labor relations and the transformations of the state form.

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