The Economic Value of Cultural Diversity: Evidence from US Cities

Gianmarco Ottaviano and Giovanni Peri

No 2004.34, Working Papers from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

Abstract: We use data on wages and rents in different U.S. cities to assess the amenity effects on production and consumption of cultural diversity as measured by diversity of countries of birth of city residents. We show that US-born citizens living in metropolitan areas where the share of foreign-born increased between 1970 and 1990 have experienced a significant average increase in their wage and in the rental price of their housing. Such finding is economically significant and robust to omitted variable bias and endogeneity bias. We then present a model in which cultural diversity may have both production and consumption amenity or disamenity effects. As people and firms are mobile across cities in the long run, the model implies that the joint results from the wage and rent regressions are consistent with a dominant production amenity effect of cultural diversity.

Keywords: Cultural diversity; Productivity; Local amenities; Urban economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F1 O4 R0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-02
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 (41)

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Related works:
Chapter: The economic value of cultural diversity: evidence from US cities (2021)
Chapter: The economic value of cultural diversity: evidence from US cities (2016)
Journal Article: The economic value of cultural diversity: evidence from US cities (2006)
Working Paper: The Economic Value of Cultural Diversity: Evidence from US Cities (2004)
Working Paper: The Economic Value of Cultural Diversity: Evidence from US Cities (2004)
Working Paper: The Economic Value of Cultural Diversity: Evidence from US cities (2004)
Working Paper: The Economic Value of Cultural Diversity: Evidence from US Cities (2004)
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