Nursery Cities: Urban Diversity, Process Innovation, and the Life Cycle of Products
构建微观基础解释多样化城市如何促进创新，提出企业通过原型试错找到理想生产流程后，从多样化城市迁至专业化城市进行大规模生产，并用法国1993-1996年企业搬迁数据验证。
This paper develops microfoundations for the role that diversified cities play in fostering innovation. A simple model of process innovation is proposed, where firms learn about their ideal production process by making prototypes. We build around this a dynamic general-equilibrium model, and derive conditions under which diversified and specialized cities coexist. New products are developed in diversified cities, trying processes borrowed from different activities. On finding their ideal process, firms switch to mass production and relocate to specialized cities where production costs are lower. We find strong evidence of this pattern in establishment relocations across French employment areas 1993–1996.