The sources of urban development: wages, housing, and amenity gaps across American cities
The sources of urban development: wages, housing, and amenity gaps across American cities
This paper asks whether worker utility levels—composed of wages, rents, and amenities—are being equalized among American cities. Using microdata on U.S. urban workers in 1980 and 2000, little evidence of equalization is found. Comparable workers earn higher real wages in large cities, where amenities are also concentrated. Moreover, population growth between 1980 and 2000 has not been significantly different in low- and high-utility cities, suggesting that other forces are at work shaping the sorting processes that match workers and firms. We outline an alternative view of the drivers of change in the American urban system, and urban development more generally, by applying theory from economic geography.
85-108
Kemeny, Thomas
b9e4ac0c-bc73-4905-8229-f970518cde88
Storper, Michael
163e23f8-d473-43de-bc34-827d9ce8cd22
31 January 2012
Kemeny, Thomas
b9e4ac0c-bc73-4905-8229-f970518cde88
Storper, Michael
163e23f8-d473-43de-bc34-827d9ce8cd22
Kemeny, Thomas and Storper, Michael
(2012)
The sources of urban development: wages, housing, and amenity gaps across American cities.
Journal of Regional Science, 52 (1), .
(doi:10.1111/j.1467-9787.2011.00754.x).
Abstract
This paper asks whether worker utility levels—composed of wages, rents, and amenities—are being equalized among American cities. Using microdata on U.S. urban workers in 1980 and 2000, little evidence of equalization is found. Comparable workers earn higher real wages in large cities, where amenities are also concentrated. Moreover, population growth between 1980 and 2000 has not been significantly different in low- and high-utility cities, suggesting that other forces are at work shaping the sorting processes that match workers and firms. We outline an alternative view of the drivers of change in the American urban system, and urban development more generally, by applying theory from economic geography.
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Published date: 31 January 2012
Organisations:
Economy, Society and Space
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Local EPrints ID: 369531
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/369531
ISSN: 0022-4146
PURE UUID: 9d7967be-9b9b-4a92-9423-04f5cb10ed1c
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Date deposited: 06 Oct 2014 10:23
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 18:05
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Author:
Thomas Kemeny
Author:
Michael Storper
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