Land use regulations and the dispersion of the IT Industry in the San Francisco Bay area

Abstract

AbstractUrban economists have recently found evidence that land use regulations prevent the efficient migration of workers among regions, generating losses in output. By contrast, there is a lack of work that directly considers the relationship between land use regulations and the geography of firms and industries. Since the 1980s, the IT industry has dispersed from its historical core, Silicon Valley, around the broader San Francisco Bay Area. This study finds that restrictive land use practices have limited IT firm creation in Silicon Valley, pushing the industry to less productive parts of the regional economy.