Location relativity in space and time: Some evidence from Swiss municipalities, 1950-2000

Abstract

The present paper looks into the context and time dependence of location effects, illustrating how it affects the long-term population growth of 2889 individual municipalities located in 26 cantons of Switzerland. The analysis demonstrates the cross-sectional and temporal relativity of location attributes, which appears to emerge clearly even for relatively small regional divisions, such as cantons. However, the difference between absolute and relative location attributes appears to diminish between 1950 and 2000. Another interesting finding of this study is that the statistical significance of most location attributes covered by the analysis appears to weaken over time, apparently due to improved road and rail infrastructures and increased motorization levels.