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Title: Essays on Inequality, Spatial Interaction, and the Demand for Skills
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2009
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Abstract: This thesis studies determinants of economic inequalities between different educationand racial groups in the United States of America.The first essay analyzes the sources of a recent employment and wage growth at thelower tail of the U.S. employment and wage distributions. It shows that these developmentsare substantially accounted for by a growth in low education, in-person serviceoccupations. A model of changing task specialization proposes that automation displacesroutine clerical and production tasks in the middle of the job distribution but not low-skillservice jobs which may instead benefit from from increased demand when consumers shifttheir consumption to outputs whose production experienced little productivity growth.An empirical analysis at the level of local labor markets over the period of 1950 through2005 confirms that markets which were initially specialized in routine-intensive occupationsexperienced a stronger growth of employment and relative wages in low-skill servicejobs after 1980.The second essay studies the reallocation of workers from middle-skill occupationstowards the tails of the occupational skill distribution between 1980 and 2005. It showsthat the average age of workers in contracting occupations is rapidly increasing as youngworkers rarely move into these jobs. While young workers with college education havemoved both to the upper and lower tail of the occupational skill distribution, older workersand those without college education are increasingly found in lower-skill, lower-payingjobs.The third essay studies racial residential segregation that results when white residentsflee a neighborhood once its minority resident share exceeds a critical tipping point. Itproposes a model where neighborhood tipping does not only result from racial preferencesbut also homeowners pecuniary incentive to sell their houses prior to a racial change toavoid a loss in house value. Hence, high rates of homeownership among white residentsmake neighborhoods more likely to tip. An empirical analysis of neighborhood data froma large panel of cities in 1970 to 2000 confirms that homeowners are disproportionatelylikely to exit a neighborhood when tipping occurs. The departure of the relatively wealthyand well-educated homeowners contributes to a drop in human capital levels of tippingneighborhoods.
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Authors: Dorn, David
Institution: University of St Gallen
Department: Economics
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Degree: PhD
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Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS CPS
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