Dense cities are the most productive cities

On the Sunday opinion page of the New York Times Ryan Avent, an economics correspondent for The Economist magazine makes the case for dense cities.  Economists studying cities routinely find that after controlling for other variables, workers in denser places earn higher wages and are more productive. Studies suggest that doubling density raises productivity from 6 percent to as much as 28 percent. Some economists have concluded that more than half the variation in output per worker across the United States can be explained by density alone; density explains more of the productivity gap across states than education levels or industry concentrations or tax policies. ” Put two workers with similar skill levels in cities of different densities and the one in the denser place will be more productive.”

Access the full article here for the economic rationale behind this.

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