Why does birthplace matter so much?

Clement Bosquet and Henry Overman

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: We consider the link between birthplace and wages. Using a unique panel dataset, we estimate a raw elasticity of wages with respect to birthplace size of 4.2%, two thirds of the 6.8% raw elasticity with respect to city size. Part of this effect simply reflects intergenerational transmission and the spatial sorting of parents, part is explained by the role that birthplace size plays in determining current city size. Lifetime immobility explains a lot of the correlation between birthplace and current city size: we show that 43.7% of individuals only ever work while living in the place they were born. Our results highlight the importance of intergenerational and individual sorting in helping explain the persistence of spatial disparities.

Keywords: place of birth; spatial sorting; intergenerational transmission; lifetime mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J61 J62 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 9 pages
Date: 2019-03-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Published in Journal of Urban Economics, 1, March, 2019, 110, pp. 26-34. ISSN: 0094-1190

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/100201/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Why does birthplace matter so much? (2019)
Working Paper: Why does birthplace matter so much? (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:100201

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