Jordan Rappaport is a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He joined the Bank in 1999 following completing his Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University. Jordan also holds a bachelors' degree from Brown University, from which he graduated in 1990. Jordan's research focuses on issues related to local growth.  His articles for the Bank's Economic Review primarily focus on U.S. metropolitan area growth and on housing. His empirical research published in peer-reviewed journals has documented the persistence and causes of long run local population growth. His published theoretical research shows that even small costs associated with moving are sufficient to cause high persistence in net population flows and that small productivity and amenity differences can cause very large differences in local population density. Jordan is an associate editor of Regional Science and Urban Economics and the Journal of Regional Science.

Recent Speeches

Professional Journals and Books

  • "Urban Growth Shadows" with David Cuberes and Klaus Desmet, Journal of Urban Economics, May 2021
  • "The Settlement of the United States, 1800–2000: The Long Transition Towards Gibrat’s Law" with Klaus Desmet, Journal of Urban Economics, March 2017
  • "The Increasing Importance of Quality of Life" Journal of Economic Geography, March 2009
  • "Consumption Amenities and City Population Density" Regional Science and Urban Economics, November 2008
  • "A Productivity Model of City Crowdedness" Journal of Urban Economics, March 2008
  • "Why Do the Poor Live in Cities: The Role of Public Transportation" with Edward Glaeser and Matthew Kahn, Journal of Urban Economics, January 2008
  • "Comparing Aggregate Housing Price Measures" Business Economics, October 2007
  • "Moving to Nice Weather" Regional Science and Urban Economics, May 2007
    PDFSupplemental Tables | PDFSupplemental Maps | Excel SpreadsheetData File
  • "A Bottleneck Capital Model of Economic Development" Journal of Monetary Economics, November 2006
    PDFSupplemental Figures
  • "How Does Labor Mobility Affect Income Convergence?" Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, March 2005
  • "Why are Population Flows So Persistent?" Journal of Urban Economics, November 2004
    PDFSupplemental Tables and Figures
  • "The United States as a Coastal Nation" with Jeffrey Sachs, Journal of Economic Growth, March 2003
    PDFSupplemental Tables, Figures, and Maps | PDFColor Versions of Maps | zipCoastal Proximity Variables

Economic Review Articles

Research Working Papers

Economic Bulletin

Other Working Papers

Additional Publications

Selected Data and Code

Stata Code for OLS Estimation with Spatially-Correlated Disturbances. (Based on Timothy Conley, 1999. “GMM Estimation with Cross Sectional Dependence.” Journal of Econometrics 92, 1) -- zipCode File