Spatial Sorting

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Eeckhout, Jan; Pinheiro, Roberto; Schmidheiny, Kurt
• 署名单位: University of London; University College London; Pompeu Fabra University; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder; University of Basel
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/676141
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 554-620
• 关键词: polarization; INEQUALITY; prices

摘要

We investigate the role of skill complementarities in production and mobility across cities. The nature of the complementarities determines the equilibrium skill distribution across cities. With extreme-skill complementarity, the skill distribution has thicker tails in large cities; with top-skill complementarity, there is first-order stochastic dominance. Using wage and housing price data, we find robust evidence of thick tails in large cities: large cities disproportionately attract both high-and low-skilled workers, while average skills are constant across city size. This pattern of spatial sorting is consistent with extreme-skill complementarity, where the productivity of high-skilled workers and of the providers of low-skilled services are mutually enhanced.