
Real Estate Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
3-2008
Publication Source
Journal of Urban Economics
Volume
63
Issue
2
Start Page
723
Last Page
742
DOI
10.1016/j.jue.2007.04.004
Abstract
Spatial wage disparities can result from spatial differences in the skill composition of the workforce, in non-human endowments, and in local interactions. To distinguish between these explanations, we estimate a model of wage determination across local labour markets using a very large panel of French workers. We control for worker characteristics, worker fixed effects, industry fixed effects, and the characteristics of the local labour market. Our findings suggest that individual skills account for a large fraction of existing spatial wage disparities with strong evidence of spatial sorting by skills. Interaction effects are mostly driven by the local density of employment. Not controlling for worker heterogeneity leads to very biased estimates of interaction effects. Endowments only appear to play a small role.
Copyright/Permission Statement
©2008. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
Keywords
local labour markets, spatial wage disparities, panel data analysis, sorting
Recommended Citation
Combes, P., Duranton, G., & Gobillon, L. (2008). Spatial Wage Disparities: Sorting Matters!. Journal of Urban Economics, 63 (2), 723-742. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2007.04.004
Date Posted: 27 November 2017
This document has been peer reviewed.
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