The Spatial Distribution of Income in Cities: New Global Evidence and Theory

We study how the spatial distribution of income and commuting patterns within cities vary across the development spectrum, drawing on new granular data from 50,000 neighborhoods in 121 cities across developed and developing countries. We document that in developing countries, poorer urban households are significantly more likely to live far from city centers, in hilly terrain, and near rivers. These patterns are absent or reversed in developed cities. Commuting shares decline more sharply with distance in less developed countries, indicating higher commuting costs that exacerbate spatial inequality in job access. Job-access measures are considerably worse for the urban poor than for the urban rich in developing countries, while the opposite is true in developed countries. We interpret these findings in a quantitative urban model and show that a parsimonious set of factors—nonhomothetic preferences over amenities, commuting costs, and the spatial concentration of jobs—helps explain most of the cross-country patterns we document.