The Comparative Advantage of Cities

Donald Davis () and Jonathan Dingel

No 20602, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: 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.

JEL-codes: F11 F14 R12 R13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-geo and nep-ure
Note: ITI LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (51)

Published as Donald R. Davis & Jonathan I. Dingel, 2020. "The comparative advantage of cities," Journal of International Economics, .

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Journal Article: The comparative advantage of cities (2020)
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