Urban Elevators and the Geography of Labor Market Polarization

Fabio Cerina (), Elisa Dienesch (), Alexander Monge-Naranjo () and Alessio Moro ()
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Fabio Cerina: University of Cagliari and CRENoS
Elisa Dienesch: University of Cagliari, CRENoS, and AMSE
Alexander Monge-Naranjo: Atlanta FED, Emory University and CEPR
Alessio Moro: University of Cagliari, CEPR and IZA

No 19069, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: Large cities gain abstract jobs and shed routine jobs faster than small ones. Whether this divergence arises because workers change location or because workers’ labor market careers differ across locations matters for welfare and policy, and cross-sectional data cannot tell the two apart. Using the French administrative panel DADS–EDP, we decompose the change in each occupation’s employment share, by city size, into within-city occupational switches, cross-city relocation, combined moves, and non-employment flows. The divergence is produced inside cities. Large cities move workers from routine to abstract jobs at twice the rate of small cities, and this flow more than accounts for the urban gap in abstract employment. The routine decline is absorbed by upgrading into abstract work, not by downgrading into manual services. This urban elevator predates the 1994 onset of French polarization and operates within occupations: holding worker characteristics and the occupation of origin fixed, staying in a large city raises the rate of upgrading by about 40%, for college and non-college workers alike. The evidence places the burden of explanation on agglomeration forces rather than on the sorting of heterogeneous workers across cities.

Keywords: spatial polarization; urban elevator; worker flows; spatial sorting; occupational mobility; longitudinal data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J62 R11 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-11
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