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Title: Skills in the City
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Bacolod, Marigee Ponla
Blum, Bernardo S.
Strange, William C.
Skills in the City
Journal of Urban Economics 65,2 (March 2009):136-153.
Also: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119008001083
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Academic Press, Inc.
Keyword(s): Cognitive Development; Geocoded Data; Human Capital; Modeling, Fixed Effects; Neighborhood Effects; Occupational Choice; Rural/Urban Differences; Rural/Urban Migration; Skilled Workers; Urban and Regional Planning; Urbanization/Urban Living

This paper documents the allocation of skills across cities and estimates the impact of agglomeration on the hedonic prices of worker skills. We find that large cities are more skilled than are small cities, but only to a modest degree. We also show that the increase in productivity associated with agglomeration, as measured by the urban wage premium, is larger for workers with stronger cognitive and people skills. In contrast, motor skills and physical strength are not rewarded to a greater degree in large cities. Urbanization thus enhances thinking and social interaction, rather than physical abilities. These results are robust to a variety of estimation strategies, including using NLSY variables that control for worker quality and a worker-MSA fixed effect specification.
Bibliography Citation
Bacolod, Marigee Ponla, Bernardo S. Blum and William C. Strange. "Skills in the City." Journal of Urban Economics 65,2 (March 2009):136-153.