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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, 2022. "Urban-Biased Growth: A Macroeconomic Analysis," NBER Working Papers 30515, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30515
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    Cited by:

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    2. Markusen, James & Gervais, Antoine & Venables, Anthony, 2021. "Urban specialisation; from sectoral to functional," CEPR Discussion Papers 15677, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. 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.
    4. Acosta, Camilo & Lyngemark, Ditte Håkonsson, 2021. "The internal spatial organization of firms: Evidence from Denmark," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    5. Anne Beck & Sebastian Doerr, 2023. "The financial origins of regional inequality," BIS Working Papers 1151, Bank for International Settlements.
    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. Clémence Berson & Pierre-Philippe Combes & Laurent Gobillon & Aurélie Sotura, 2023. "Time-Varying Agglomeration Economies and Aggregate Wage Growth," Working Papers hal-04346733, HAL.
    8. Lukas Althoff & Fabian Eckert & Sharat Ganapati & Conor Walsh, 2020. "The City Paradox: Skilled Services and Remote Work," CESifo Working Paper Series 8734, CESifo.
    9. Marcolino, Marcos, 2022. "Accounting for structural transformation in the U.S," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    10. 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).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • 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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