For whom are cities good places to live?

Fredrik Carlsen and Stefan Leknes ()

Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Abstract: We use Norwegian data to evaluate the consumption hypothesis of geographical variation in educational attainment, i.e. that well-educated people particularly value the amenities provided by cities. Our results cast doubts on the hypothesis. After-tax real wages are higher in rural areas than in urban areas, suggesting that Norwegians are willing to forego purchasing power in order to enjoy urban amenities, but the urban purchasing power premium is roughly equal across education groups. Moreover, survey data in which respondents evaluate local amenities indicate a broad consensus between education groups about the advantages and disadvantages about city life as well as about the relationship between city size and the quality of local amenities.

Keywords: Quality of life; urban amenities; population size; education; mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J3 J61 R11 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2015-01-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur, nep-geo, nep-hap and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.svt.ntnu.no/iso/WP/2015/1_Stefan_wp15.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: For whom are cities good places to live? (2022)
Working Paper: For whom are cities good places to live? (2021)
Working Paper: For whom are cities good places to live? (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nst:samfok:16215

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