Smart Cities: Quality of Life, Productivity, and the Growth Effects of Human Capital

This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data

Smart Cities: Quality of Life, Productivity, and the Growth Effects of Human Capital

Author Info

Jesse M Shapiro

Abstract

From 1940 to 1990, a 10% increase in a metropolitan area's concentration of college-educated residents was associated with a 0.8% increase in subsequent employment growth. Instrumental variables estimates support a causal relationship between college graduates and employment growth, but show no evidence of an effect of high school graduates. Using data on growth in wages, rents, and house values, I calibrate a neoclassical city growth model and find that roughly 60% of the employment growth effect of college graduates is due to enhanced productivity growth, the rest being caused by growth in the quality of life. This finding contrasts with the common argument that human capital generates employment growth in urban areas solely through changes in productivity. Copyright Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

Publisher Info
Article provided by MIT Press in its journal The Review of Economics and Statistics.

Volume (Year): 88 (2006)
Issue (Month): 2 (08)
Pages: 324-335
Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:88:y:2006:i:2:p:324-335

Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/

Order Information:
Web: http://mitpress.mit.edu/journal-home.tcl?issn=00346535

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Christopher F. Baum).

Related research
Keywords:

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

Florida, Richard & Mellander, Charlotta & Qian, Haifeng, 2008. "Creative China? The University, Tolerance and Talent in Chinese Regional Development," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 145, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies. [Downloadable!]
Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Vassilis Tselios, 2008. "Education and Income Inequality in the Regions of the European Union," SERC Discussion Papers 0011, Spatial Economics Research Centre, LSE. [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Vassilis Tselios, 2007. "Education and income inequality in the regions of the European Union," Working Papers 2007-17, Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) Ciencias Sociales. [Downloadable!]
- Andres Rodriguez-Pose & Vasileios Tselios, 2006. "Education and Income Inequality in the Regions of the European Union," ERSA conference papers ersa06p370, European Regional Science Association. [Downloadable!]
- Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés & Tselios, Vassilis, 2007. "Education and Income Inequality in the Regions of the European Union," Papers DYNREG09, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). [Downloadable!]
- Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Vassilis Tselios, 2009. "Education And Income Inequality In The Regions Of The European Union," Journal of Regional Science, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(3), pages 411-437. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
David Albouy, 2009. "What Are Cities Worth? Land Rents, Local Productivity, and the Capitalization of Amenity Values," NBER Working Papers 14981, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Timothy J. Bartik & George Erickcek, 2007. "Higher Education, the Health Care Industry, and Metropolitan Regional Economic Development: What Can “Eds & Meds” Do for the Economic Fortunes of a Metro Area’s Residents?," Staff Working Papers 08-140, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
David Y. Albouy, 2008. "The Unequal Geographic Burden of Federal Taxation," NBER Working Papers 13995, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
- David Albouy, 2009. "The Unequal Geographic Burden of Federal Taxation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(4), pages 635-667, 08. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Blomquist, Glenn C. & Coomes, Paul A. & Jepsen, Christopher & Koford, Brandon C. & Troske, Kenneth, 2009. "Estimating the Social Value of Higher Education: Willingness to Pay for Community and Technical Colleges," IZA Discussion Papers 4086, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Edward L. Glaeser & Joshua D. Gottlieb, 2009. "The Wealth of Cities: Agglomeration Economies and Spatial Equilibrium in the United States," NBER Working Papers 14806, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Bianca Biagi & D. Lambiri & V. Royuela, 2006. "Quality of Life in the Economic and Urban Economic Literature," Working Paper CRENoS 200610, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia. [Downloadable!]
Stepán Jurajda & Katherine Terrell, 2007. "Regional Unemployment and Human Capital in Transition Economies," IZA Discussion Papers 3176, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
Other versions:
- Stepan Jurajda & Katherine Terrell, 2007. "Regional Unemployment and Human Capital in Transition Economies," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp345, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economic Institute, Prague. [Downloadable!]
- Jurajda, Stepan & Terrell, Katherine, 2007. "Regional Unemployment and Human Capital in Transition Economies," CEPR Discussion Papers 6569, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
- Stepán Jurajda & Katherine Terrell, 2009. "Regional unemployment and human capital in transition economies," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 17(2), pages 241-274, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Shawn Kantor & Alexander Whalley, 2009. "Do Universities Generate Agglomeration Spillovers? Evidence from Endowment Value Shocks," NBER Working Papers 15299, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Alberto Dalmazzo & Guido De Blasio, 2007. "Skill-Biased Agglomeration Effects and Amenities: Theory with an Application to Italian Cities," Department of Economics University of Siena 503, Department of Economics, University of Siena. [Downloadable!]

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Did you know? All bibliographic data on IDEAS has been put in the public domain by the publishers.

This page was last updated on 2009-12-12.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.