Klaus Desmet
Biographic Data
| ID | 962382 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Klaus Desmet |
| GIVEN NAMES | Klaus |
| FAMILY NAME | Desmet |
| SIGNATURE | DESMET K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Southern Methodist University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8206-845X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 135 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The economic geography of climate change: Recent progress and open questions
Climate change is a spatial phenomenon, hurting some regions more than others. As a result, global warming will lead to a spatial reallocation of the world’s economic geography. Recent spatial integrated assessment models project substantial increases in spatial inequality while predicting modest aggregate losses. However, these global losses may be understated if models fail to account for multiple equilibria or migration-induced conflict. They …
Is Secessionism Mostly About Income or Identity? A Global Analysis of 3,153 Subnational Regions
This paper analyses whether the propensity to secede by subnational regions responds mostly to differences in income per capita or to distinct ethnolinguistic identities. We explore this question in a quantitative political economy model where people’s willingness to finance a public good depends on their income and identity. Using high-resolution economic and linguistic data for the entire globe, we predict the propensity to secede of 3,153 subn…
On the Geographic Implications of Carbon Taxes
Using a multi-sector dynamic spatial integrated assessment model, we argue that a carbon tax introduced by the European Union and rebated locally can, if not too large, increase the size of Europe’s economy by concentrating economic activity in its high-productivity non-agricultural core and by incentivising immigration to the European Union. The resulting change in the spatial distribution of economic activity improves global efficiency and welf…
The gender gap in preferences: Evidence from 45,397 Facebook interests
JUE Insight: Understanding spatial variation in Covid-19 across the United States
Local sectoral specialization in a warming world
This paper quantitatively assesses the world’s changing economic geography and sectoral specialization due to global warming. It proposes a two-sector dynamic spatial growth model that incorporates the relation between economic activity, carbon emissions and temperature. The model is taken to the data at the 1° by 1° resolution for the entire world. Over a 200-year horizon, rising temperatures consistent with emissions under Representative Concen…
Urban growth shadows
Expanding the Measurement of Culture with a Sample of Two Billion Humans
The shrinking advantage of market potential
The geography of linguistic diversity and the provision of public goods
The Geography of Development
We develop a dynamic spatial growth theory with realistic geography. We characterize the model and its balanced-growth path and propose a methodology to analyze equilibria with different levels of migration frictions. Different migration scenarios change local market size, innovation incentives, and the evolution of technology. We bring the model to the data for the whole world economy at a 1° × 1° geographic resolution. We then use the model to …
The Cultural Divide
We study the evolution of cultural divides both theoretically and empirically. We propose a model of cultural change where intergenerational transmission and forces of social influence determine the distribution of cultural traits in society. We conduct an empirical investigation of the evolution of cultural heterogeneity in the USA between 1972 and 2018, using the General Social Survey. In recent decades, cultural heterogeneity between individua…
The settlement of the United States, 1800–2000: The long transition towards Gibrat’s law
On the spatial economic impact of global warming
The political economy of linguistic cleavages
Linguistic Diversity and Redistribution
This paper investigates the effect of linguistic diversity on redistribution in a broad cross-section of countries. We use the notion of “linguistic distances” and show that the commonly used fractionalization index, which ignores linguistic distances, yields insignificant results. However, once distances between languages are accounted for, linguistic diversity has both a statistically and economically significant effect on redistribution. With …
Changes in the spatial concentration of employment across US counties: A sectoral analysis 1972–2000
Using U.S. county data, we estimate employment growth equations to analyze how the spatial distribution of jobs has changed between 1972 and 2000. We find that total employment has become increasingly concentrated. This aggregate picture hides important sectoral differences though: whereas non-service employment has been spreading out, service jobs have clustered in areas of high aggregate employment. By controlling for employment at different di…
A Simple Dynamic Model of Uneven Development and Overtaking
This is the accepted version of the following article: Desmet, K. (2002), A Simple Dynamic Model of Uneven Development and Overtaking. The Economic Journal, 112(482) 894–918, which has been published in final form at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-0297.00071
The political economy of linguistic cleavages
The Geography of Development
We develop a dynamic spatial growth theory with realistic geography. We characterize the model and its balanced-growth path and propose a methodology to analyze equilibria with different levels of migration frictions. Different migration scenarios change local market size, innovation incentives, and the evolution of technology. We bring the model to the data for the whole world economy at a 1° × 1° geographic resolution. We then use the model to …
The settlement of the United States, 1800–2000: The long transition towards Gibrat’s law
Changes in the spatial concentration of employment across US counties: A sectoral analysis 1972–2000
Using U.S. county data, we estimate employment growth equations to analyze how the spatial distribution of jobs has changed between 1972 and 2000. We find that total employment has become increasingly concentrated. This aggregate picture hides important sectoral differences though: whereas non-service employment has been spreading out, service jobs have clustered in areas of high aggregate employment. By controlling for employment at different di…
Urban growth shadows
JUE Insight: Understanding spatial variation in Covid-19 across the United States
On the spatial economic impact of global warming
Local sectoral specialization in a warming world
This paper quantitatively assesses the world’s changing economic geography and sectoral specialization due to global warming. It proposes a two-sector dynamic spatial growth model that incorporates the relation between economic activity, carbon emissions and temperature. The model is taken to the data at the 1° by 1° resolution for the entire world. Over a 200-year horizon, rising temperatures consistent with emissions under Representative Concen…
The geography of linguistic diversity and the provision of public goods
The Cultural Divide
We study the evolution of cultural divides both theoretically and empirically. We propose a model of cultural change where intergenerational transmission and forces of social influence determine the distribution of cultural traits in society. We conduct an empirical investigation of the evolution of cultural heterogeneity in the USA between 1972 and 2018, using the General Social Survey. In recent decades, cultural heterogeneity between individua…
Is Secessionism Mostly About Income or Identity? A Global Analysis of 3,153 Subnational Regions
This paper analyses whether the propensity to secede by subnational regions responds mostly to differences in income per capita or to distinct ethnolinguistic identities. We explore this question in a quantitative political economy model where people’s willingness to finance a public good depends on their income and identity. Using high-resolution economic and linguistic data for the entire globe, we predict the propensity to secede of 3,153 subn…
The shrinking advantage of market potential
A Simple Dynamic Model of Uneven Development and Overtaking
This is the accepted version of the following article: Desmet, K. (2002), A Simple Dynamic Model of Uneven Development and Overtaking. The Economic Journal, 112(482) 894–918, which has been published in final form at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-0297.00071
Changes in the spatial concentration of employment across US counties: A sectoral analysis 1972–2000
Using U.S. county data, we estimate employment growth equations to analyze how the spatial distribution of jobs has changed between 1972 and 2000. We find that total employment has become increasingly concentrated. This aggregate picture hides important sectoral differences though: whereas non-service employment has been spreading out, service jobs have clustered in areas of high aggregate employment. By controlling for employment at different di…
Linguistic Diversity and Redistribution
This paper investigates the effect of linguistic diversity on redistribution in a broad cross-section of countries. We use the notion of “linguistic distances” and show that the commonly used fractionalization index, which ignores linguistic distances, yields insignificant results. However, once distances between languages are accounted for, linguistic diversity has both a statistically and economically significant effect on redistribution. With …
The political economy of linguistic cleavages
On the spatial economic impact of global warming
The settlement of the United States, 1800–2000: The long transition towards Gibrat’s law
The Geography of Development
We develop a dynamic spatial growth theory with realistic geography. We characterize the model and its balanced-growth path and propose a methodology to analyze equilibria with different levels of migration frictions. Different migration scenarios change local market size, innovation incentives, and the evolution of technology. We bring the model to the data for the whole world economy at a 1° × 1° geographic resolution. We then use the model to …
The Cultural Divide
We study the evolution of cultural divides both theoretically and empirically. We propose a model of cultural change where intergenerational transmission and forces of social influence determine the distribution of cultural traits in society. We conduct an empirical investigation of the evolution of cultural heterogeneity in the USA between 1972 and 2018, using the General Social Survey. In recent decades, cultural heterogeneity between individua…
The geography of linguistic diversity and the provision of public goods
Expanding the Measurement of Culture with a Sample of Two Billion Humans
The shrinking advantage of market potential
Local sectoral specialization in a warming world
This paper quantitatively assesses the world’s changing economic geography and sectoral specialization due to global warming. It proposes a two-sector dynamic spatial growth model that incorporates the relation between economic activity, carbon emissions and temperature. The model is taken to the data at the 1° by 1° resolution for the entire world. Over a 200-year horizon, rising temperatures consistent with emissions under Representative Concen…
Urban growth shadows
JUE Insight: Understanding spatial variation in Covid-19 across the United States
The economic geography of climate change: Recent progress and open questions
Climate change is a spatial phenomenon, hurting some regions more than others. As a result, global warming will lead to a spatial reallocation of the world’s economic geography. Recent spatial integrated assessment models project substantial increases in spatial inequality while predicting modest aggregate losses. However, these global losses may be understated if models fail to account for multiple equilibria or migration-induced conflict. They …
Is Secessionism Mostly About Income or Identity? A Global Analysis of 3,153 Subnational Regions
This paper analyses whether the propensity to secede by subnational regions responds mostly to differences in income per capita or to distinct ethnolinguistic identities. We explore this question in a quantitative political economy model where people’s willingness to finance a public good depends on their income and identity. Using high-resolution economic and linguistic data for the entire globe, we predict the propensity to secede of 3,153 subn…
On the Geographic Implications of Carbon Taxes
Using a multi-sector dynamic spatial integrated assessment model, we argue that a carbon tax introduced by the European Union and rebated locally can, if not too large, increase the size of Europe’s economy by concentrating economic activity in its high-productivity non-agricultural core and by incentivising immigration to the European Union. The resulting change in the spatial distribution of economic activity improves global efficiency and welf…
The gender gap in preferences: Evidence from 45,397 Facebook interests
Economics (12 works) · Economic geography (9 works) · Geography (9 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies (5 works) · Economic Growth and Productivity (5 works) · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works)