THE SOURCES OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT: WAGES, HOUSING, AND AMENITY GAPS ACROSS AMERICAN CITIES*
Thomas Kemeny
Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599. E-mail: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorMichael Storper
The London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE; and Sciences Po, 27 rue Saint Guillaume, 75007 Paris, France. E-mail: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorThomas Kemeny
Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599. E-mail: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorMichael Storper
The London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE; and Sciences Po, 27 rue Saint Guillaume, 75007 Paris, France. E-mail: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorThe authors would like to thank the participants at the 2010 Urban Development, Causes, and Consequences Conference at IHS Rotterdam, as well as Henry Overman, Christian Hilber, Michael Manville, Philip McCann, Allen Scott, Richard Walker, and three anonymous reviewers for insights, discussions, and advice that were helpful in revising this paper.
Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper asks whether worker utility levels—composed of wages, rents, and amenities—are being equalized among American cities. Using microdata on U.S. urban workers in 1980 and 2000, little evidence of equalization is found. Comparable workers earn higher real wages in large cities, where amenities are also concentrated. Moreover, population growth between 1980 and 2000 has not been significantly different in low- and high-utility cities, suggesting that other forces are at work shaping the sorting processes that match workers and firms. We outline an alternative view of the drivers of change in the American urban system, and urban development more generally, by applying theory from economic geography.
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