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Cities, skills, and inequality

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  • Christopher H. Wheeler

Abstract

The surge in U.S. wage inequality over the past several decades is now commonly attributed to an increase in the returns paid to skill. Although theories differ with respect to why, specifically, this increase has come about, many agree that it is strongly tied to the increase in the relative supply of skilled (i.e. highly educated) workers in the U.S. labor market. A greater supply of skilled labor, for example, may have induced skill-biased technological change or generated greater stratification of workers by skill across firms or jobs. Given that metropolitan areas in the U.S. have long possessed more educated populations than non-metropolitan areas, these theories suggest that the rise in both the returns to skill and wage inequality should have been particularly pronounced in cities. Evidence from the U.S. Census over the period 1950 to 1990 supports both implications.

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  • Christopher H. Wheeler, 2004. "Cities, skills, and inequality," Working Papers 2004-020, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2004-020
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    Cited by:

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    2. Mark Frank, 2009. "Income Inequality, Human Capital, and Income Growth: Evidence from a State-Level VAR Analysis," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 37(2), pages 173-185, June.
    3. Sébastien Breau & Dieter F. Kogler & Kenyon C. Bolton, 2014. "On the Relationship between Innovation and Wage Inequality: New Evidence from Canadian Cities," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 90(4), pages 351-373, October.
    4. Neil Lee & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2013. "Innovation and spatial inequality in Europe and USA," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, January.
    5. Up Lim & Ye Choi & Heonyoung Lee, 2015. "Occupational skills and the gender wage gap in Seoul, Korea: a multilevel approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 55(2), pages 335-356, December.
    6. repec:rre:publsh:v:38:y:2008:i:2:p:145-72 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Haixiao Wu, 2018. "Is There a Kuznets Curve for Intra-City Earnings Inequality?," Working Papers 2018-09, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    8. Clément Carbonnier, 2019. "The Distributional Impact of Local Taxation on Households in France," Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE), issue 507-508, pages 31-52.
    9. Argentino Pessoa, 2014. "Smart Specialisation in the EU: Is it a Bridge between Innovation and Cohesion?," ERSA conference papers ersa14p989, European Regional Science Association.
    10. Wen-Chi Liao, 2005. "Outsourcing, Inequality, and Cities," 2005 Meeting Papers 904, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    11. Beatriz Valcárcel-Aguiar & Pilar Murias, 2019. "Evaluation and Management of Urban Liveability: A Goal Programming Based Composite Indicator," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 689-712, April.
    12. Edward L. Glaeser & Matthew G. Resseger & Kristina Tobio, 2008. "Urban Inequality," NBER Working Papers 14419, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Argentino Pessoa, 2016. "Rectracted: Smart specialization in the EU: RIS3 conditionality, innovation and cohesion," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(2), pages 439-439, June.
    14. Beatriz Valcárcel-Aguiar & Pilar Murias & David Rodríguez-González, 2018. "Sustainable Urban Liveability: A Practical Proposal Based on a Composite Indicator," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, December.
    15. Kolomak, Evgeniya, 2020. "Urbanization and income inequality: Cause or solution?," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 59, pages 55-70.

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