What Drives the Urban Wage Premium? Evidence along the Wage Distribution

Alessia Matano and Paolo Naticchioni

No 7811, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper aims at disentangling the role played by different explanations on the urban wage premium along the wage distribution. We analyze the wage dynamics of migrants from lower to higher density areas in Italy, using quantile regressions and individual data. The results show that unskilled workers benefit more from a wage premium accruing over time, while skilled workers enjoy a wage premium when they migrate as well as a wage increase over time. Further, we find that for unskilled workers the wage growth over time is mainly due to human capital accumulation, consistently with the "learning" hypothesis, while for skilled workers it is the "coordination" hypothesis that matters.

Keywords: wage distribution; spatial sorting; human capital; urban wage premium; quantile fixed effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J61 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2013-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Journal of Regional Science, 2016, 56 (2), 191 - 209

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https://docs.iza.org/dp7811.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: WHAT DRIVES THE URBAN WAGE PREMIUM? EVIDENCE ALONG THE WAGE DISTRIBUTION (2016)
Working Paper: What Drives the Urban Wage Premium? Evidence along the Wage Distribution (2012)
Working Paper: What Drives the Urban Wage Premium? Evidence along the Wage Distribution (2012)
Working Paper: What Drives the Urban Wage Premium? Evidence along the Wage Distribution (2012)
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