Labor market polarization and the great urban divergence

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Davis, Donald R.; Mengus, Eric; Michalski, Tomasz K.
• 署名单位: National Bureau of Economic Research; Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) Paris; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2026.104224
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: technological-change; job polarization; skill; INEQUALITY

摘要

Labor market polarization is among the most important features in recent decades of advanced country labor markets. Yet key spatial aspects of this phenomenon remain under-explored. We develop four key facts that document the universality of polarization across cities, a city-size difference in the shock magnitudes, a skew in the types of middle-paid jobs lost, and the role of polarization in the great urban divergence of skills. Existing theories cannot account for these facts. Hence we develop a parsimonious theoretical account that does so by integrating elements from the literatures on labor market polarization and systems of cities with heterogeneous labor in spatial equilibrium.