Jeffrey Lin
About
I am an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. I study cities, regions, and growth.
The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia or the Federal Reserve System.
I am also co-executive director of the Philadelphia Federal Statistical Research Data Center, co-editor of Regional Science and Urban Economics, and co-host of Densely Speaking: Conversations About Cities, Economics, and Law (RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify)
Curriculum Vitae (October 2023)
IDEAS/RePEc
Google Scholar
Phone: (215) 574-3441
E-mail: jeff.lin (at) phil.frb.org or jeff (at) jlin.org
Twitter: @jeffrlin
Recent updates
Learn about CREED, our new initiative to make unstructured economic data more accessible. 21 July 2023
Densely Speaking, my podcast with Greg Shill, is back for a third season. The first two episodes featured interviews with Stijn van Nieuwerburgh and Andra Ghent on the effects of WFH on the outlook for cities. 21 July 2023
My article with Enrico Berkes, Olivier Deschênes, Ruben Gaetani, and Christopher Severen, Lockdowns and Innovation: Evidence from the 1918 Flu Pandemic, was accepted by Review of Economics and Statistics. 21 July 2023
We are now accepting submissions and applications to participate in the 14th Conference on Urban and Regional Economics in Philadelphia on December 1-2, 2022. Application deadline is September 16, 2022, at 1 p.m. EDT. 30 August 2022
I contributed a short essay to a new article ``The State of Urban Research: Views Across the Disciplines,'' which is forthcoming (and open access) in the Journal of Urban Affairs. 30 August 2022
My article with Jeff Brinkman, "Freeway Revolts! The Quality of Life Effects of Freeways", was accepted by the Review of Economics and Statistics. I posted the latest pre-print here. 30 August 2022
My article with Ferdinand Rauch, "What Future For History Dependence in Spatial Economics?" was published in Regional Science and Urban Economics. 29 June 2022
"The Costs and Benefits of Fixing Downtown Freeways," with Jeff Brinkman, was published in the 2022 Q1 issue of Economic Insights. 31 March 2022
Working papers and work in progress
The Bronx is Burning: Urban Disinvestment Effects of the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements with Ingrid Gould Ellen, Daniel Hartley, and Wei You
- What it's about: Evidence on the unintended consequences of the 1968 Urban Property Insurance Protection and Reinsurance Act and the effects of disinvestment on neighborhoods.
Expecting an Expressway with Jeffrey Brinkman and Kyle Mangum
- What it's about: Theory and evidence on self-fulfilling expectations in neighborhood development and the strength of local agglomeration forces from the Interstate era in US cities.
Mapping Inventions in the Space of Ideas, 1836–2022: Representation and Measurement
with Ina Ganguli, Vitaly Meursault and Nicholas Reynolds
April 2024
Racial Factors in the Allocation of Interstate Highways, 1950–1980 with Jessica LaVoice
- What it's about: Why, when, where, and how highways came to Black neighborhoods.
Semi-Automated Digitization of the Historical Censuses of Housing Block Statistics, 1940–1970 with Dan Moulton, Isaac Rand, and Robyn Smith
- What it's about: Methods for digitizing tabular and map data on housing at the Census block level since 1940.
Regional Resilience
December 2012
Peer-reviewed publications
Lockdowns and Innovation: Evidence from the 1918 Flu Pandemic
with Enrico Berkes, Olivier Deschênes, Ruben Gaetani, and Christopher Severen
Review of Economics and Statistics, accepted.
Working paper from February 2023.
November 2020
Freeway Revolts! The Quality of Life Effects of Highways
with Jeffrey Brinkman
Review of Economics and Statistics, accepted.
Working paper from July 2022.
Previous working paper from July 2019. Slides from November 2019.
Media coverage by Citylab and WHYY.
The Well-Being of Nations: Estimating Welfare from International Migration
with Sanghoon Lee and Seung Hoon Lee
International Economic Review 62:3 (August 2021), 1111-1130.
Working paper from January 2021.
Slides from October 2019.
Population Density and Local Food Market Channels
with Jeffrey K. O'Hara
Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 42:3 (September 2020), 477-496.
The Paper Trail of Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence from Patent Interferences
with Ina Ganguli and Nicholas Reynolds
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 12:2 (April 2020), 278-302.
Working paper from September 2019. Slides from June 2019.
Natural Amenities, Neighborhood Dynamics, and Persistence in the Spatial Distribution of Income
with Sanghoon Lee
Review of Economic Studies 85:1 (January 2018), 663-694.
Reprinted in Recent Developments in the Economics of Housing, Y. Ioannides, ed., Edward Elgar Publishing (2019).
Working paper from January 2017. Appendix and replication data in a zip file. Data and advice for how to normalize historical census tract and enumeration district data to 2010 U.S. census tract boundaries. Media coverage by Chicago magazine
Thick-Market Effects and Churning in the Labor Market: Evidence from U.S. Cities
with Hoyt Bleakley
Journal of Urban Economics, 72:2-3 (September-November 2012), 87-103.
Reprinted in The Economics of Agglomeration, W. Strange, ed., Edward Elgar Publishing (2019).
Working paper from October 2007.
Portage and Path Dependence
with Hoyt Bleakley
Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127:2 (2012), 587-644.
Working paper from September 2011.
Co-winner of IPUMS Research Award 2012 for Best Published Article Using IPUMS-USA Data.
Media coverage by Business Insider.
Technological Adaptation, Cities, and New Work
Review of Economics and Statistics, 93:2 (May 2011), 554-574.
Reprinted in The Economics of Agglomeration, W. Strange, ed., Edward Elgar Publishing (2019).
Working paper from July 2009. Replication data and data on new occupational classifications.
Precision, Bias, and Uncertainty for State Population Forecasts: An Exploratory Analysis of Time Series Models
with Jeff Tayman and Stanley K. Smith
Population Research and Policy Review 26:3 (June 2007), 347-369.
Gentrification and Transit in Northwest Chicago
Journal of the Transportation Research Forum, in Transportation Quarterly, 56:4 (Fall 2002), 175-191.
Hathi Trust version.
Summary pieces, invited articles, and conference proceedings
The State of Urban Research: Views Across the Disciplines
with Harold Wolman, William Barnes, Jennifer Clark, Samantha Friedman, Richard Harris, and Thomas Orgozalek.
Journal of Urban Affairs (2022).
What Future For History Dependence in Spatial Economics?
with Ferdinand Rauch
Regional Science and Urban Economics 94 (2022), 103628.
The Costs and Benefits of Fixing Downtown Freeways
with Jeffrey Brinkman
Economic Insights 7:1 (2022), 17-22.
Early Interstate Policy and Its Effects on Central Cities
with Jeffrey Brinkman
Cityscape 22:2 (2020), 81-86.
Understanding Gentrification's Causes: What do three centuries of Philadelphia history tell us about today's changing neighborhoods?
Economic Insights 2:3 (2017), 9-17.
Media coverage by PlanPhilly.
What Have We Learned About the Causes of Recent Gentrification?
with Jackelyn Hwang
Cityscape 18:3 (November 2016), 9-26.
Correction to Exhibit 2. Slides presented at the 2016 Research Symposium on Gentrification and Neighborhood Change. Media coverage by the Washington Post.
History and the Sizes of Cities
with Hoyt Bleakley
American Economic Review, Papers & Proceedings, 105:5 (May 2015), 558-563.
Working paper from January 2015.
The Puzzling Persistence of Place
Business Review 2015 Q2: 1-8.
The Paper Trail of Knowledge Transfers
Business Review 2014 Q2: 1-6
Geography, History, Economies of Density, and the Location of Cities
Business Review 2012 Q3: 18-24.
Urban Productivity Advantages from Job Search and Matching
Business Review 2011 Q1: 9-16
Data and code
Data and code for analyzing new occupation titles ("new work") in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, 1964, 1977, 1991, and the US Census, 1980, 1990, and 2000.
Includes replication files for "Technological Adaptation, Cities, and New Work."
Replication files for "Portage and Path Dependence"
Coming soon.
Data and code for "normalizing" historical census data to 2010 census tract boundaries.
Includes replication files for "Natural Amenities, Neighborhood Dynamics, and Persistence in the Spatial Distribution of Income."
Data on natural amenities for 2010 US census tracts
Version 2, based on original data from "Natural Amenities, Neighborhood Dynamics, and Persistence in the Spatial Distribution of Income." Coming soon.
Data on highways in U.S. cities and neighborhoods
From "Freeway Revolts! The Quality of Life Effects of Highways."
Last updated 2 April 2024
Home URL: http://jlin.org/
The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia or the Federal Reserve System.