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The Geography of Inequality: Difference and Determinants of Wage and Income Inequality across US Metros

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  • Florida , Richard

    (University of Toronto)

  • Mellander , Charlotta

    (Jönköping International Business School)

Abstract

This paper examines the geographic variation in inequality, and it distinguishes between wage and income inequality. Wage inequality is associated with skills, human capital, technology and metro size - in line with the literature on skill-biased technical change. Income inequality is instead more closely associated with race, poverty, lower levels of unionization and lower taxes. This suggests that income inequality is a product not only of skill-biased technical change, but also of the enduring legacy of race and poverty at the bottom of the socio-economic order, as well as the unraveling of the post-war social compact between capital and labor.

Suggested Citation

  • Florida , Richard & Mellander , Charlotta, 2013. "The Geography of Inequality: Difference and Determinants of Wage and Income Inequality across US Metros," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 304, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0304
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Daron Acemoglu, 1998. "Why Do New Technologies Complement Skills? Directed Technical Change and Wage Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 113(4), pages 1055-1089.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    inequality; income; wage; high-tech; skills;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General

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