Full Citation

Title: Inter-city wage differentials and intra-city workplace centralization

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2009

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: We explore the interaction of inter-city and intra-city wage differentials by occupation. The paper makes twomain contributions. 1) We construct an occupation-specific index of workplace centralization that accountsfor the difference between average employment density from the perspective of employees in eachoccupation and average employment density from the perspective of all employees. 2) We provide empiricalevidence that relative wages of central to non-central occupations increase with city size, or equivalently, theelasticity of wages with respect to city size increases with occupational centrality. We conjecture that thisempirical regularity arises because, as city size increases, workers in more central occupations face anincreasingly less desirable locus of housing prices and commuting times relative to workers who have jobs inresidential areas. The results are robust to the inclusion of individual-specific human capital variables andcity-specific fixed effects.

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Montes-Rojas, Gabriel; Dewey, Jim

Periodical (Full): Regional Science and Urban Economics

Issue:

Volume: 39

Pages: 602-609

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Housing and Segregation, Labor Force and Occupational Structure

Countries: