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Inequality and City Size

Author

Listed:
  • Nathaniel Baum-Snow

    (Brown University and NBER)

  • Ronni Pavan

    (Royal Holloway, University of London)

Abstract

A strong positive monotonic relationship between wage inequality and city size developed between 1979 and 2007 in the United States. After accounting for differences in skill composition across cities of different sizes, we find that at least 23% of the nationwide increase in the variance of log hourly wages is explained by the more rapid growth in wage inequality in larger locations than in smaller locations. This influence occurred throughout the wage distribution, was most prevalent during the 1990s, and was mostly driven by more rapid growth in within-skill-group inequality in larger cities. © 2013 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Suggested Citation

  • Nathaniel Baum-Snow & Ronni Pavan, 2013. "Inequality and City Size," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(5), pages 1535-1548, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:95:y:2013:i:5:p:1535-1548
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    inequality; city size; wage distribution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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