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Urban-Biased Growth: A Macroeconomic Analysis

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  • Fabian Eckert
  • Sharat Ganapati
  • Conor Walsh

Abstract

After 1980, larger US cities experienced substantially faster wage growth than smaller ones. We show that this urban bias mainly reflected wage growth at large Business Services firms. These firms stand out through their high per-worker expenditure on information technology and disproportionate presence in big cities. We introduce a spatial model of investment-specific technical change that can rationalize these patterns. Using the model as an accounting framework, we find that the observed decline in the investment price of information technology capital explains most urban-biased growth by raising the profits of large Business Services firms in big cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabian Eckert & Sharat Ganapati & Conor Walsh, 2024. "Urban-Biased Growth: A Macroeconomic Analysis," Working Papers 24-33, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:24-33
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    Cited by:

    1. Clémence Berson & Pierre-Philippe Combes & Laurent Gobillon & Aurélie Sotura, 2023. "Time-Varying Agglomeration Economies and Aggregate Wage Growth," SciencePo Working papers hal-04346733, HAL.
    2. Anne Beck & Sebastian Doerr, 2023. "The financial origins of regional inequality," BIS Working Papers 1151, Bank for International Settlements.
    3. Enghin Atalay & Sebastian Sotelo & Daniel Tannenbaum, 2024. "The Geography of Job Tasks," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(4), pages 979-1008.
    4. Markusen, James & Gervais, Antoine & Venables, Anthony, 2021. "Urban specialisation; from sectoral to functional," CEPR Discussion Papers 15677, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Lukas Althoff & Fabian Eckert & Sharat Ganapati & Conor Walsh, 2020. "The City Paradox: Skilled Services and Remote Work," CESifo Working Paper Series 8734, CESifo.
    6. Althoff, Lukas & Eckert, Fabian & Ganapati, Sharat & Walsh, Conor, 2022. "The Geography of Remote Work," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    7. Oliver Hümbelin & Lukas Hobi & Robert Fluder, 2021. "Rich Cities, Poor Countryside? Social Structure of the Poor and Poverty Risks in Urban and Rural Places in an Affluent Country. An Administrative Data based Analysis using Random Forest," University of Bern Social Sciences Working Papers 40, University of Bern, Department of Social Sciences, revised 10 Nov 2021.
    8. Marcolino, Marcos, 2022. "Accounting for structural transformation in the U.S," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    9. Schubert, Torben & Ashouri, Sajad & Deschryvere, Matthias & Jäger, Angela & Visentin, Fabiana & Cunningham, Scott & Hajikhani, Arash & Pukelis, Lukas & Suominen, Arho, 2023. "The role of product digitization for productivity," MERIT Working Papers 2023-004, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    10. Acosta, Camilo & Lyngemark, Ditte Håkonsson, 2021. "The internal spatial organization of firms: Evidence from Denmark," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Urban Growth; High-skill Services; Technological Change;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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