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Spatial Sorting: Why New York, Los Angeles and DetroitAttract the Greatest Minds as well as the Unskilled

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  • Jan Eeckhout
  • Roberto Pinheiro
  • Kurt Schmidheiny

Abstract

We propose a theory of skill mobility across cities. It predicts the well documented city size-wage premium: the wage distribution in large cities first-order stochastically dominates that in small cities. Yet, because this premium is reflected in higher house prices, this does not necessarily imply that this stochastic dominance relation also exists in the distribution of skills. Instead, we find there is second-order stochastic dominance in the skill distribution. The demand for skills is non-monotonic as our model predicts a “Sinatra” as well as an “Eminem” effect: both the very high and the very low skilled disproportionately sort into the biggest cities, while those with medium skill levels sort into small cities. The pattern of spatial sorting is explained by a technology with a varying elasticity of substitution that is decreasing in skill density. Using CPS data on wages and Census data on house prices, we find that this technology is consistent with the observed patterns of skills.

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File URL: http://www.cesifo-group.de/portal/page/portal/DocBase_Content/WP/WP-CESifo_Working_Papers/wp-cesifo-2010/wp-cesifo-2010-12/cesifo1_wp3274.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number 3274.

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Date of creation: 2010
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3274

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Keywords: matching theory; sorting; general equilibrium; population dynamics; cities; wage distribution;

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References

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  1. Pierre-Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Diego Puga & Sebastien Roux, 2009. "The productivity advantages of large cities: Distinguishing agglomeration from firm selection," Working Papers tecipa-353, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
  2. Christian Broda & David E. Weinstein, 2008. "Understanding International Price Differences Using Barcode Data," NBER Working Papers 14017, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Behrens, Kristian & Duranton, Gilles & Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric, 2010. "Productive cities: Sorting, selection and agglomeration," CEPR Discussion Papers 7922, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  4. Thomas J. Holmes & John J. Stevens, 2004. "Geographic concentration and establishment size: analysis in an alternative economic geography model," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(3), pages 227-250, June.
  5. Gautier, Pieter A & Svarer, Michael & Teulings, Coen N, 2005. "Marriage and the City," CEPR Discussion Papers 4939, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  6. Helpman, Elhanan & Itskhoki, Oleg & Redding, Stephen J., 2009. "Inequality and Unemployment in a Global Economy," CEPR Discussion Papers 7353, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  7. Duranton, Gilles & Jayet, Hubert, 2005. "Is the Division of Labour Limited By the Extent of the Market? Evidence from French Cities," CEPR Discussion Papers 5087, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  8. Jahyeong Koo & Keith Phillips & Fiona Sigalla, 1997. "Measuring regional cost of living," Working Papers 97-13, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
  9. Morris A. Davis & Jonas D. M. Fisher & Toni M. Whited, 2010. "Macroeconomic implications of agglomeration," Working Paper Series WP-2010-02, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
  10. Morris A. Davis & François Ortalo-Magné, 2007. "Household Expenditures, Wages, Rents," CESifo Working Paper Series 2156, CESifo Group Munich.
  11. repec:bla:restud:v:74:y:2007:i:2:p:477-506 is not listed on IDEAS
  12. Robert E. Lucas & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2002. "On the Internal Structure of Cities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(4), pages 1445-1476, July.
  13. Desmet, Klaus & Rossi-Hansberg, Esteban, 2009. "Spatial Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 7479, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  14. Eeckhout, Jan & Kircher, Philipp, 2010. "Sorting and decentralized price competition," Open Access publications from London School of Economics and Political Science http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/, London School of Economics and Political Science.
  15. Sieg, Holger & Smith, V. Kerry & Banzhaf, H. Spencer & Walsh, Randy, 2002. "Interjurisdictional housing prices in locational equilibrium," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 131-153, July.
  16. Xavier Gabaix, 1999. "Zipf'S Law For Cities: An Explanation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 114(3), pages 739-767, August.
  17. E. D. Gould, 2007. "Cities, Workers, and Wages: A Structural Analysis of the Urban Wage Premium," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 477-506.
  18. Thomas J. Holmes & John J. Stevens, 2002. "Geographic Concentration and Establishment Scale," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(4), pages 682-690, November.
  19. Keane, Michael P & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1997. "The Career Decisions of Young Men," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(3), pages 473-522, June.
  20. Christian Broda & Ephraim Leibtag & David E. Weinstein, 2009. "The Role of Prices in Measuring the Poor's Living Standards," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 77-97, Spring.
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Cited by:
  1. Alberto Dalmazzo & Antonio Accetturo & Guido de Blasio, 2012. "Skill Polarization in Local Labour Markets under Share-Altering Technical Change," ERSA conference papers ersa12p288, European Regional Science Association.
  2. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Duranton, Gilles & Gobillon, Laurent & Roux, Sébastien, 2012. "Sorting and local wage and skill distributions in France," CEPR Discussion Papers 8920, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  3. Marco Francesconi & Mich�le Belot, 2011. "Dating Preferences and Meeting Opportunities in Mate Choice Decisions," Economics Discussion Papers 702, University of Essex, Department of Economics.

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