Full Citation

Title: Applications of Regional Economics to Income Distribution, Migration, and Effects of Internet Commerce on Retailing

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2019

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Abstract: This dissertation consists of three essays on regional economics that deal with earnings inequality in cities, interstate migration and spatial competition in the retail market. Chapter 1 provides a theoretical framework to analyze the observation of rising earnings inequality with city size. Many papers have found a positive relation between income inequality and city size in the US and other countries. This literature has assumed that the relation is linear. Tests performed here find that it is concave, resembling the classic Kuznets curve. A theoretical model based on the Income Elasticity Hypothesis (IEH), explains that inequality is a concave function of housing prices that tend to increase with city size. Further tests confirm the concavity of the relation between Gini and housing costs that is predicted by the IEH. Although for most cities, inequality still rises with housing costs, if housing costs continue to grow in large cities, inequality should eventually fall, resembling the Kuznets Curve at the country level.

Url: https://search.proquest.com/docview/2272213325?pq-origsite=gscholar

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Authors: Wu, Haixiao

Institution: The George Washington University

Department: Economics

Advisor: Yezer, Anthony M.

Degree: Ph.D.

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Pages: 130

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Migration and Immigration, Poverty and Welfare

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