Geographical Concentration and Economic Growth: Do Externalities Matter?
The study uses a growth accounting framework to assess the effect of geographical concentration on economic growth. Findings indicate population density to be a good candidate for evaluating the externality influence, since a significant portion of the variation in economic growth over U.S. counties and BEA regions is explained by differences in population density.
Link
http://econwpa.wustl.edu:80/eps/urb/papers/0412/0412002.pdf