Jordan Horrillo

Hoover fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and political scientist studying the political economy of environmental policy, especially wildfire risk and forest management in the American West.

Economic Markets Follow Terrain and Transport Technology, Not Fixed Grid Cells

Fixed latitude-longitude grid cells can obscure the markets within which people make economic decisions: unlike cells, markets change in reach with terrain and transport technology. Stephen Haber and Jordan Horrillo propose measuring markets as contiguous areas shaped by those conditions, then use the method to test Adam Smith’s claim that economic development is bounded by market extent. Their analysis of cities in Eurasia and Africa around 1800 finds that market reach helps explain the distribution of urban population, though it is not the only factor.

Hoover InstitutionOct 13, 202613 min read