IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ecr/col070/47823.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The spatial concentration of high-skilled workers and city productivity: the case of Latin America

Author

Listed:
  • Vargas, Miguel
  • Garrido, Nicolás

Abstract

The aim of this study is to cast light on the relationship between the spatial concentration of high-skilled workers and the productivity of cities in Latin America. The relationship is not clear at first sight. On the one hand, the segregation of high-skilled workers should create agglomeration economies and give rise to positive spillovers amongst the most advantaged, offsetting productivity losses that result from the existence of ghettos of low-skilled workers. On the other hand, it may well be that these spillovers are not enough to compensate for the loss of productivity in the worse-off groups, so that aggregate productivity is negatively affected. We analysed this segregation for a group of Latin America’s largest cities and found a negative and significant relationship between the productivity of cities and the segregation of high-skilled workers. However, we also found evidence of a quadratic relationship between segregation and productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Vargas, Miguel & Garrido, Nicolás, 2021. "The spatial concentration of high-skilled workers and city productivity: the case of Latin America," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecr:col070:47823
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repositorio.cepal.org/handle/11362/47823
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raul Conejeros & Miguel Vargas, 2012. "Segregation, exclusion and compensating transfers under a dynamic setting," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(17), pages 2203-2215, June.
    2. Krugman, Paul, 1980. "Scale Economies, Product Differentiation, and the Pattern of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(5), pages 950-959, December.
    3. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2003. "Income Inequality in the United States, 1913–1998," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 1-41.
    4. -, 2021. "CEPAL Review no. 135," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    5. Fogarty, Michael S. & Garofalo, Gasper A., 1988. "Urban spatial structure and productivity growth in the manufacturing sector of cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 60-70, January.
    6. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    7. Bjerk, David, 2010. "Thieves, thugs, and neighborhood poverty," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 231-246, November.
    8. Leo Sveikauskas, 1975. "The Productivity of Cities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 89(3), pages 393-413.
    9. Rosenthal, Stuart S. & Strange, William C., 2004. "Evidence on the nature and sources of agglomeration economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 49, pages 2119-2171, Elsevier.
    10. Tabuchi, Takatoshi, 1986. "Urban agglomeration, capital augmenting technology, and labor market equilibrium," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 211-228, September.
    11. Roland Bénabou, 1996. "Equity and Efficiency in Human Capital Investment: The Local Connection," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 63(2), pages 237-264.
    12. Anas, Alex, 2002. "Prejudice, exclusion, and compensating transfers: the economics of ethnic segregation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 409-432, November.
    13. Raj Chetty & Nathaniel Hendren & Lawrence F. Katz, 2016. "The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(4), pages 855-902, April.
    14. David M. Cutler & Edward L. Glaeser, 1997. "Are Ghettos Good or Bad?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 827-872.
    15. Williamson, Jeffrey G., 2010. "Five centuries of Latin American income inequality," Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(2), pages 227-252, September.
    16. Corvalan, Alejandro & Vargas, Miguel, 2015. "Segregation and conflict: An empirical analysis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 212-222.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Rodrigo Diaz & Nicolas Garrido & Miguel Vargas, 2021. "Segregation of high‐skilled workers and the productivity of cities," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(5), pages 1460-1478, October.
    2. de Graaff, Thomas & van Oort, Frank G. & Florax, Raymond J.G.M., 2012. "Sectoral heterogeneity, accessibility and population–employment dynamics in Dutch cities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 115-127.
    3. 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.
    4. Victoria Gregory & Julian Kozlowski & Hannah Rubinton, 2022. "The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium," Working Papers 2022-036, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised 24 Jul 2023.
    5. Feldman, Maryann P. & Kogler, Dieter F., 2010. "Stylized Facts in the Geography of Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 381-410, Elsevier.
    6. Stephen J. Redding, 2013. "Economic Geography: A Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Daniel Bernhofen & Rod Falvey & David Greenaway & Udo Kreickemeier (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of International Trade, chapter 16, pages 497-531, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Yi Niu & Chengri Ding & Gerrit-Jan Knaap, 2015. "Employment Centers and Agglomeration Economies," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 29(1), pages 14-22, February.
    8. Luigi Buzzacchi & Antonio De Marco & Marcello Pagnini, 2021. "Agglomeration and the Italian North-South divide," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 637, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    9. Behrens, Kristian & Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric, 2008. "Survival of the fittest in cities: agglomeration, selection, and polarisation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28506, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Kristian Behrens & Frédéric Robert‐Nicoud, 2009. "Krugman's Papers in Regional Science: The 100 dollar bill on the sidewalk is gone and the 2008 Nobel Prize well‐deserved," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(2), pages 467-489, June.
    11. Bryan S. Graham, 2018. "Identifying and Estimating Neighborhood Effects," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(2), pages 450-500, June.
    12. Puga, Diego, 2008. "Agglomeration and cross-border infrastructure," EIB Papers 9/2008, European Investment Bank, Economics Department.
    13. Lichao Wu & Yanpeng Jiang & Lili Wang & Xinhao Qiao, 2022. "The two faces of urbanisation and productivity: Enhance or inhibit? New evidence from Chinese firm‐level data," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 36(1), pages 126-142, May.
    14. O'Flaherty, Brendan & Sethi, Rajiv, 2010. "The racial geography of street vice," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 270-286, May.
    15. Deepak Saraswat, 2022. "Labor Market Impacts of Exposure to Affordable Housing Supply: Evidence from the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program," Working papers 2022-09, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    16. Philippe Martin & Thierry Mayer & Florian Mayneris, 2008. "Spatial Concentration and Firm-Level Productivity in France," Sciences Po publications 6858, Sciences Po.
    17. Cherkashin, Ivan & Demidova, Svetlana & Kee, Hiau Looi & Krishna, Kala, 2015. "Firm heterogeneity and costly trade: A new estimation strategy and policy experiments," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 18-36.
    18. Jos� Lobo & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick & Deborah Strumsky, 2014. "The Inventive, the Educated and the Creative: How Do They Affect Metropolitan Productivity?," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 155-177, February.
    19. Andreas Fagereng & Luigi Guiso & Davide Malacrino & Luigi Pistaferri, 2020. "Heterogeneity and Persistence in Returns to Wealth," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(1), pages 115-170, January.
    20. Farrokhi, Farid & Jinkins, David, 2019. "Wage inequality and the location of cities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 76-92.

    More about this item

    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:ecr:col070:47823. 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: Biblioteca CEPAL (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eclaccl.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.