The Comparative Advantage of Cities
Open accessAbstract
What determines the distributions of skills, occupations, and industries across cities?We develop a theory to jointly address these fundamental questions about the spatial organization of economies.Our model incorporates a system of cities, their internal urban structures, and a high-dimensional theory of factor-driven comparative advantage.It predicts that larger cities will be skill-abundant and specialize in skill-intensive activities according to the monotone likelihood ratio property.We test the model using data on 270 US metropolitan areas, 3 to 9 educational categories, 22 occupations, and 21 manufacturing industries.The results provide support for our theory's predictions.
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The tendency for EDU_d to be the best-performing indicator can likely be explained by (1) the greater share of high-skill employment in urban centres, (2) the greater number of higher education institutions in urban centres, and (3) the stability of educational attainment over generations.
“This tendency can likely be explained by (1) the greater share of high-skill employment in urban centres ([9], pp. 27 -32, 2) the greater number of higher education institutions in urban centres and (3) the stability of educational attainment over generations ([32], pp. 76 -77).”
From The opportunity of shared autonomous vehicles to improve spatial equity in accessibility and socio-economic developments in European urban areas (2021) · cites this paper as [9]
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- Authors
- Davis, D., & Dingel, J.
- Affiliations
- National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Venue
- National Bureau of Economic Research
- Publisher
- National Bureau of Economic Research
- Published
- 2014-10
- OpenAlex
- W3021300146
- Cited by
- 64
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 4
- Type
- report
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- National Bureau of Economic Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Chicago
- Booth School of Business, University of Chicago
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Regional Economic and Spatial Analysis
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Global Urban Networks and Dynamics
- Keywords
- comparative advantage, cities, urban structure, skill distribution, occupational distribution, industrial specialization, metropolitan areas, manufacturing industry, educational attainment
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