The Rise of the Skilled City

68 Pages Posted: 30 Jul 2004

See all articles by Edward L. Glaeser

Edward L. Glaeser

Harvard University - Department of Economics; Brookings Institution; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Albert Saiz

IZA Institute of Labor Economics; MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: December 2003

Abstract

For more than a century, educated cities have grown more quickly than comparable cities with less human capital. This fact survives a battery of other control variables, metropolitan area fixed effects and tests for reverse causality. We also find that skilled cities are growing because they are becoming more economically productive (relative to less skilled cities), not because these cities are becoming more attractive places to live. Most surprisingly, we find evidence suggesting that the skills-city growth connection occurs mainly in declining areas and occurs in large part because skilled cities are better at adapting to economic shocks. As in Schultz (1964), skills appear to permit adaptation.

Suggested Citation

Glaeser, Edward L. and Saiz, Albert and Saiz, Albert, The Rise of the Skilled City (December 2003). Harvard Institute of Economic Research Discussion Paper No. 2025, FRB Philadelphia Working Paper No. 04-2, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=569867 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.569867

Edward L. Glaeser (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Department of Economics ( email )

Littauer Center
Room 315A
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
617-496-2150 (Phone)
617-496-1722 (Fax)

Brookings Institution

1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036-2188
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Albert Saiz

MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning ( email )

77 Massachusetts Avenue
50 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
United States
617-252-1687 (Phone)
617-258-6991 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
562
Abstract Views
5,283
Rank
68,848
PlumX Metrics