Occupational Matching and Cities

Theodore Papageorgiou ()
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Theodore Papageorgiou: Boston College

No 2020-049, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group

Abstract: In this paper, I document that workers in larger cities have significantly more occupational options than workers in smaller ones. They are able to form better occupational matches and earn higher wages. I also note differences in the occupational reallocation patterns across cities. I develop a dynamic model of occupational choice that microfounds agglomeration economies and captures the empirical patterns. The calibration of the model suggests that better occupational match quality accounts for approximately 35% of the observed wage premium and a third of the greater inequality in larger cities.

Keywords: occupations; agglomeration economies; urban wage premium; multi-armed bandits; geographical mobility; matching theory; wage inequality; job vacancy postings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-geo, nep-lma and nep-ure
Note: M
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Papage ... -matching-cities.pdf First version, June 2020 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hka:wpaper:2020-049

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