The Complementarity between Cities and Skills

Glaeser, Edward L.; Resseger, Matthew

doi:10.3386/w15103

Cited by 82 publications

(97 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…For more talented individuals to sort into larger cities where urban costs are higher, their rewards must be relatively higher there. This is exactly what the empirical literature finds (Wheeler, 2001; Bacolod, Blum, and Strange, 2009; Glaeser and Resseger, 2010). It is also the case that more talented individuals migrate to areas that offer them higher rewards (Dahl, 2002).…”

Section: Proposition 4 (Equilibrium Population Of Talent-homogeneous supporting

confidence: 57%

“…Taking again education as a proxy for talent, Wheeler (2001) and Glaeser and Resseger (2010) find stronger agglomeration benefits for more educated workers relative to less educated workers. Taking cognitive and people skills as another proxy for talent, Bacolod, Blum, and Strange (2009) find a similar result for individuals with better cognitive and people skills.…”

Section: Selection and Agglomerationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Productive Cities: Sorting, Selection, and Agglomeration

Behrens

Duranton

Robert‐Nicoud

2014

Journal of Political Economy

347

226

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Large cities produce more output per capita than small cities. This higher productivity may occur because more talented individuals sort into large cities, because large cities select more productive entrepreneurs and firms, or because of agglomeration economies. We develop a model of systems of cities that combines all three elements and suggests interesting complementarities between them. The model can replicate stylized facts about sorting, agglomeration, and selection in cities. It also generates Zipf 's law for cities under empirically plausible parameter values. Finally, it provides a useful framework within which to reinterpret extant empirical evidence. Abstract Large cities produce more output per capita than small cities. This may occur because more talented individuals sort into large cities, because large cities select more productive entrepreneurs and firms, or because of agglomeration economies. We develop a model of systems of cities that combines all three elements and suggests interesting complementarities between them. The model can replicate stylised facts about sorting, agglomeration, and selection in cities. It also generates Zipf's law for cities under empirically plausible parameter values. Finally, it provides a useful framework within which to reinterpret extant empirical evidence.

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Section: Proposition 4 (Equilibrium Population Of Talent-homogeneous supporting

confidence: 57%

Section: Selection and Agglomerationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Productive Cities: Sorting, Selection, and Agglomeration

Behrens

Duranton

Robert‐Nicoud

2014

Journal of Political Economy

347

226

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…More educated places seem to be growing both in population and income, once we account for the tendency of incomes to revert to the mean. Glaeser and Resseger (2010) present evidence suggesting that skills have more impact in larger cities. In theory, urban density is more valuable when it connects people who have more to teach one another.…”

Section: Fact # 9: Education Predicts Post-war Growthmentioning

confidence: 62%

Cities, Skills and Regional Change

Glaeser

Ponzetto²,

Tobio³

2012

Regional Studies

154

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One approach to urban areas emphasizes the existence of certain immutable relationships, such as Zipf's or Gibrat's Law. An alternative view is that urban change re ‡ects individual responses to changing tastes or technologies. This paper examines almost 200 years of regional change in the U.S. and …nds that few, if any, growth relationships remain constant, including Gibrat's Law. Education does a reasonable job of explaining urban resilience in recent decades, but does not seem to predict county growth a century ago. After reviewing this evidence, we present and estimate a simple model of regional change, where education increases the level of entrepreneurship.Human capital spillovers occur at the city level because skilled workers produce more product varieties and thereby increase labor demand. We …nd that skills are associated with growth in productivity or entrepreneurship, not with growth in quality of life, at least outside of the West. We also …nd that skills seem to have depressed housing supply growth in the West, but not in other regions, which supports the view that educated residents in that region have fought for tougher land-use controls. We also present evidence that skills have had a disproportionately large impact on unemployment during the current recession.Comments are appreciated and can be sent to eglaeser@harvard.edu, gponzetto@crei.cat, and kristina_tobio@ksg.harvard.edu.

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“…for France (e.g., Combes et al, 2010) and the us (e.g., Ciccone andHall, 1996, Glaeser andResseger, 2010), the estimated elasticity of wages with respect to density is slightly lower. It is about one to two percentage points lower than in these other countries.…”

Section: Our Main Estimating Equation Ismentioning

confidence: 99%

Marshallian labour market pooling: Evidence from Italy

Andini

Blasio

Duranton

et al. 2013

Regional Science and Urban Economics

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This paper employs a unique Italian data source to take a comprehensive approach to labour market pooling. It jointly considers many different aspects of the agglomeration -labour market relationship, including turnover, learning, matching, and hold up. It also considers labour market pooling from the perspective of both workers and firms and across a range of industries. Overall, the paper finds some support for theories of labour market pooling, but the support is weak. Specifically, there is a general positive relationship of turnover to local population density, which is consistent with theories of agglomeration and uncertainty. There is also evidence of on-the-job learning that is consistent with theories of labour pooling, labour poaching, and hold up. In addition, the paper provides evidence consistent with agglomeration improving job matches. However, the labour market pooling gains that we measure are small in magnitude and seem unlikely to account for a substantial share of the agglomeration benefits accruing to Italian workers and firms. Abstract: This paper employs a unique Italian data source to take a comprehensive approach to labor market pooling. It jointly considers many different aspects of the agglomeration -labor market relationship, including turnover, learning, matching, and hold up. It also considers labor market pooling from the perspective of both workers and firms and across a range of industries. Overall, the paper finds some support for theories of labor market pooling, but the support is weak. Specifically, there is a general positive relationship of turnover to local population density, which is consistent with theories of agglomeration and uncertainty. There is also evidence of on-the-job learning that is consistent with theories of labor pooling, labor poaching, and hold up. In addition, the paper provides evidence consistent with agglomeration improving job matches. However, the labor market pooling gains that we measure are small in magnitude and seem unlikely to account for a substantial share of the agglomeration benefits accruing to Italian worker and firms.Key words: local labor markets, matching, turnover, learning, hold-up, agglomeration jel classification: r23, j60 * We are deeply indebted to the researchers in the Statistics Department of the Bank of Italy who helped us to phrase the questions included in the shiw and sisf special sections on local labor markets. Our sincere thanks as well go to

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The Complementarity between Cities and Skills

Cited by 82 publications

References 10 publications

Productive Cities: Sorting, Selection, and Agglomeration

Productive Cities: Sorting, Selection, and Agglomeration

Cities, Skills and Regional Change

Marshallian labour market pooling: Evidence from Italy

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