IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/101854.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The wider impacts of high-technology employment

Author

Listed:
  • Kemeny, Thomas
  • Osman, Taner

Abstract

Innovative, high-technology industries are commonly described as drivers of regional development. ‘Tech’ workers earn high wages, but they allegedly generate knock-on effects throughout the local economies that host them, producing new jobs and raising wages in nontradable activities. At the same time, in iconic high-tech agglomerations like the San Francisco Bay Area, the home of Silicon Valley, the success of the tech industry creates tensions, in part as living costs rise beyond the reach of many non-tech workers. Across a large sample of US cities, this paper explores these issues systematically. Combining annual data on wages, employment and prices from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Consumer Price Index, it estimates how growth in tradable tech employment affects the real, living-cost deflated wages of local workers in nontradable sectors. Results indicate that high-technology employment has significant, positive, but substantively modest effects on the real wages of workers in nontradable sectors. However, in cities with highly price-inelastic housing markets, the relationship is inverted, with tech generating negative externalities for nontradable workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Kemeny, Thomas & Osman, Taner, 2017. "The wider impacts of high-technology employment," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101854, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:101854
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/101854/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William R. Kerr & Josh Lerner & Scott Stern, 2014. "Introduction to "Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 15"," NBER Chapters, in: Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 15, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Mary C. Daly & Bart Hobijn & Benjamin Pyle, 2016. "What's up with wage growth?," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    3. Enrico Moretti, 2010. "Local Multipliers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 373-377, May.
    4. Faggio, Giulia & Overman, Henry, 2014. "The effect of public sector employment on local labour markets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 91-107.
    5. Thomas Kemeny & Michael Storper, 2015. "Is Specialization Good for Regional Economic Development?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(6), pages 1003-1018, June.
    6. Enrico Moretti, 2013. "Real Wage Inequality," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 65-103, January.
    7. Albert Saiz, 2010. "The Geographic Determinants of Housing Supply," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(3), pages 1253-1296.
    8. Moretti, Enrico, 2004. "Estimating the social return to higher education: evidence from longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1-2), pages 175-212.
    9. Rebecca Diamond, 2016. "The Determinants and Welfare Implications of US Workers' Diverging Location Choices by Skill: 1980-2000," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(3), pages 479-524, March.
    10. Sébastien Breau & Dieter F. Kogler & Kenyon C. Bolton, 2014. "On the Relationship between Innovation and Wage Inequality: New Evidence from Canadian Cities," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(4), pages 351-373, October.
    11. Raven Molloy & Christopher L. Smith & Abigail Wozniak, 2011. "Internal Migration in the United States," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 173-196, Summer.
    12. Enrico Moretti & Per Thulin, 2013. "Local multipliers and human capital in the United States and Sweden," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(1), pages 339-362, February.
    13. Matthew P. Drennan & Emanuel Tobier & Jonathan Lewis, 1996. "The Interruption of Income Convergence and Income Growth in Large Cities in the 1980s," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 33(1), pages 63-82, February.
    14. Ganong, Peter & Shoag, Daniel, 2017. "Why has regional income convergence in the U.S. declined?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 76-90.
    15. Timothy J. Bartik, 1991. "Who Benefits from State and Local Economic Development Policies?," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number wbsle, December.
    16. Michael Storper & Thomas Kemeny & Taner Osman & Naji, Institutional Research Information Service Makarem, 2015. "The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies," Post-Print hal-01534293, HAL.
    17. J. Bradford Jensen & Lori G. Kletzer, 2010. "Measuring Tradable Services and the Task Content of Offshorable Services Jobs," NBER Chapters, in: Labor in the New Economy, pages 309-335, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Christopher S. Fowler & Rachel Garshick Kleit, 2014. "The Effects of Industrial Clusters on the Poverty Rate," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(2), pages 129-154, April.
    19. Glaeser, Edward L & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(6), pages 1126-1152, December.
      • Edward L. Glaeser & Hedi D. Kallal & Jose A. Scheinkman & Andrei Shleifer, 1991. "Growth in Cities," NBER Working Papers 3787, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
      • Glaeser, Edward Ludwig & Kallal, Hedi D. & Scheinkman, Jose A. & Shleifer, Andrei, 1992. "Growth in Cities," Scholarly Articles 3451309, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    20. Belal Fallah & Mark D. Partridge & Dan S. Rickman, 2014. "Geography and High-Tech Employment Growth in US Counties," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 683-720.
    21. Fleming, David A. & Measham, Thomas G., 2014. "Local job multipliers of mining," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 9-15.
    22. Michael Spence & Sandile Hlatshwayo, 2012. "The Evolving Structure of the American Economy and the Employment Challenge," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 54(4), pages 703-738, December.
    23. Elsie Echeverri‐Carroll & Sofia G. Ayala, 2009. "Wage differentials and the spatial concentration of high‐technology industries," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(3), pages 623-641, August.
    24. Ellison, Glenn & Glaeser, Edward L, 1997. "Geographic Concentration in U.S. Manufacturing Industries: A Dartboard Approach," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(5), pages 889-927, October.
    25. Aaron Chatterji & Edward Glaeser & William Kerr, 2014. "Clusters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(1), pages 129-166.
    26. Douglass C. North, 1955. "Location Theory and Regional Economic Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(3), pages 243-243.
    27. Derek Hyra, 2015. "The back-to-the-city movement: Neighbourhood redevelopment and processes of political and cultural displacement," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(10), pages 1753-1773, August.
    28. Alex Schafran, 2013. "Origins of an Urban Crisis: The Restructuring of the San Francisco Bay Area and the Geography of Foreclosure," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 663-688, March.
    29. G. de Blasio & C. Menon, 2011. "Local Effects of Manufacturing Employment Growth in Italy," Giornale degli Economisti, GDE (Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia), Bocconi University, vol. 70(3), pages 101-112, December.
    30. Gilles Duranton, 2011. "California Dreamin': The Feeble Case for Cluster Policies," Review of Economic Analysis, Digital Initiatives at the University of Waterloo Library, vol. 3(1), pages 3-45, July.
    31. Rauch James E., 1993. "Productivity Gains from Geographic Concentration of Human Capital: Evidence from the Cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 380-400, November.
    32. Philippe Frocrain & Pierre-Noël Giraud, 2017. "The evolution of tradable and non-tradable employment: evidence from France," Working Papers hal-01695159, HAL.
    33. Howells, Jeremy, 2005. "Innovation and regional economic development: A matter of perspective?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1220-1234, October.
    34. Malecki, Edward J., 1981. "Science, technology, and regional economic development: Review and prospects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 312-334, October.
    35. Maryann Feldman & Theodora Hadjimichael & Lauren Lanahan & Tom Kemeny, 2016. "The logic of economic development: a definition and model for investment," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(1), pages 5-21, February.
    36. Clark, N. G., 1972. "Science, technology and regional economic development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 297-319, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Neil Lee & Stephen Clarke, 2017. "Who gains from high-tech growth? High-technology multipliers, employment and wages in Britain," SPRU Working Paper Series 2017-14, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kemeny, Tom & Osman, Taner, 2018. "The wider impacts of high-technology employment: Evidence from U.S. cities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(9), pages 1729-1740.
    2. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 349-404, Elsevier.
    3. Lee, Neil & Clarke, Stephen, 2019. "Do low-skilled workers gain from high-tech employment growth? High-technology multipliers, employment and wages in Britain," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    4. Neil Lee & Stephen Clarke, 2017. "Who gains from high-tech growth? High-technology multipliers, employment and wages in Britain," SPRU Working Paper Series 2017-14, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    5. Neil Lee & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2016. "Is There Trickle-Down from Tech? Poverty, Employment, and the High-Technology Multiplier in U.S. Cities," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 106(5), pages 1114-1134, September.
    6. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2014. "The Growth of Cities," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 5, pages 781-853, Elsevier.
    7. Tom Kemeny & Michael Storper, 2024. "The Changing Shape of Spatial Income Disparities in the United States," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 100(1), pages 1-30, January.
    8. repec:bof:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512111472 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. repec:zbw:bofrdp:urn:nbn:fi:bof-201512111472 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Buchholz Maximilian & Bathelt Harald, 2021. "Models of Regional Economic Development: Illustrations Using U.S. Data," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 65(1), pages 28-42, March.
    11. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 349-404, Elsevier.
    12. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2015_027 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Taner Osman & Tom Kemeny, 2022. "Local job multipliers revisited," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 150-170, January.
    14. Lee, Jongkwan, 2021. "The Role of a University in Cluster Formation: Evidence from a National Institute of Science and Technology in Korea," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    15. Roberta Moraes Rocha & Breno Caldas Araújo, 2021. "Local multiplier effect of the tradable sector on the Brazilian labor market," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 269-286, December.
    16. Benjamin Austin & Edward Glaeser & Lawrence Summers, 2018. "Jobs for the Heartland: Place-Based Policies in 21st-Century America," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 49(1 (Spring), pages 151-255.
    17. Mr. Tamim Bayoumi & Jelle Barkema, 2019. "Stranded! How Rising Inequality Suppressed US Migration and Hurt Those Left Behind," IMF Working Papers 2019/122, International Monetary Fund.
    18. Belal Fallah & Mark D. Partridge & Dan S. Rickman, 2014. "Geography and High-Tech Employment Growth in US Counties," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 683-720.
    19. Kemeny, Tom & Petralia, Sergio & Storper, Michael, 2022. "Disruptive innovation and spatial inequality," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115953, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Kemeny, Thomas & Storper, Michael, 2020. "Superstar cities and left-behind places: disruptive innovation, labor demand, and interregional inequality," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103312, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    21. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Gobillon, Laurent, 2015. "The Empirics of Agglomeration Economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 247-348, Elsevier.
    22. Neil Lee & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2021. "Entrepreneurship and the fight against poverty in US cities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(1), pages 31-52, February.
    23. Marta Auricchio, 2015. "Local Manufacturing Multiplier, Technology Level and Human Capital in Italian Local Labor Markets," ERSA conference papers ersa15p1381, European Regional Science Association.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    high-technology; inequality; real wages; nontradable services; housing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:101854. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.