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Urban escalators and inter-regional elevators: the difference that location, mobility and sectoral specialisation make to occupational progression

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  • Champion, Tony
  • Gordon, Ian R.

Abstract

This paper uses evidence from the (British) Longitudinal Study to examine the influence on occupational advancement of the city-region of residence (an escalator effect) and of relocation between city-regions (an elevator effect). It shows both effects to be substantively important, though less so than the sector of employment. Elevator effects are found to be associated with moves from slacker to tighter regional labour markets. Escalator effects, on the other hand, are linked with residence in larger urban agglomerations, though not specifically London, but also across most of the Greater South East and in second/third order city-regions elsewhere. Sectoral escalator effects are found to be particularly strong in knowledge-intensive activities, with concentrations of these, as of other advanced job types (rather than of graduate labour), contributing strongly to the more dynamic city-regional escalators. The impact of the geographic effects is found to vary substantially with both observed and unobserved personal characteristics, being substantially stronger for the young and for those whose unobserved attributes (e.g. dynamic human capital) generally boost rates of occupational advance.

Suggested Citation

  • Champion, Tony & Gordon, Ian R., 2013. "Urban escalators and inter-regional elevators: the difference that location, mobility and sectoral specialisation make to occupational progression," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59245, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:59245
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Richard Florida, 2002. "Bohemia and economic geography," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 55-71, January.
    2. Ian R. Gordon, 2015. "Ambition, Human Capital Acquisition and the Metropolitan Escalator," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(6), pages 1042-1055, June.
    3. Jorge De La Roca & Diego Puga, 2017. "Learning by Working in Big Cities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(1), pages 106-142.
    4. Tony Champion & Mike Coombes & Ian Gordon, 2013. "How Far Do England’s Second-Order Cities Emulate London as Human-Capital ‘Escalators’?," SERC Discussion Papers 0132, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Amin, Ash & Roberts, Joanne, 2008. "Knowing in action: Beyond communities of practice," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 353-369, March.
    6. Glaeser, Edward L & Mare, David C, 2001. "Cities and Skills," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(2), pages 316-342, April.
    7. K. Bruce Newbold & W. Mark Brown, 2012. "Testing and Extending the Escalator Hypothesis: Does the Pattern of Post-migration Income Gains in Toronto Suggest Productivity and/or Learning Effects?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(15), pages 3447-3465, November.
    8. Bosio, Giulio, 2009. "Temporary employment and wage gap with permanent jobs: evidence from quantile regression," MPRA Paper 16055, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Edward L. Glaeser & Matthew G. Resseger, 2010. "The Complementarity Between Cities And Skills," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 221-244, February.
    10. Natasha Iskander & Christine Riordan & Nichola Lowe, 2013. "Learning in Place: Immigrants' Spatial and Temporal Strategies for Occupational Advancement," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 89(1), pages 53-75, January.
    11. Peri, Giovanni, 2002. "Young workers, learning, and agglomerations," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 582-607, November.
    12. Molho, Ian, 1986. "Theories of Migration: A Review," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 33(4), pages 396-419, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mikhail Martynovich, 2017. "The role of local embeddedness and non-local knowledge in entrepreneurial activity," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 741-762, December.
    2. Adriana Duta & Cristina Iannelli, 2018. "Social Class Inequalities in Graduates’ Labour Market Outcomes: The Role of Spatial Job Opportunities," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-18, October.
    3. Alex Bryson & Rhys Davies, 2019. "Family, Place and the Intergenerational Transmission of Union Membership," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(3), pages 624-650, September.
    4. Galster, George C. & Osland, Liv, 2024. "Educational and gender heterogeneity of the rural-urban earnings premium: New evidence from Norway," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).

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    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

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