Smart Cities: Explaining the Relationship between City Growth and Human Capital

Jesse Shapiro

Urban/Regional from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: From 1940 to 1990, a 10 percent increase in a metrpolitan area’s concentration of college-educated residents was associated with a .6 percent increase in subsequent employment growth. Using data on growth in wages and house values, I attempt to distinguish between explanations for this correlation based on local productivity growth, and explanations based on growth in local consumption amenities. Calibration of a city growth model suggests that roughly two-thirds of the growth effect of human capital is due to enhanced productivity growth, the rest being caused by growth in the quality of life. This contrasts with the standard argument that human capital generates growth in urban areas solely through local knowledge spillovers.

Keywords: city growth; human capital; hedonics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2003-09-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-lab and nep-ure
Note: Type of Document - Acrobat PDF; prepared on IBM PC ; to print on HP; pages: 24 ; figures: included
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpur:0309001

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