应用经济学报告系列 (1112-27)

题目：Spatial Sorting

报告人：Jan Eeckhout, University College London and Barcelona GSE-UPF

时间：2:00-3:30pm, April 10

地点：成人直播新楼217教室

Abstract:

We investigate the role of sorting and skill mobility across cities. We propose a general equilibrium model of location choice by heterogeneously skilled workers, and consider different degrees of complementarities between the skills of workers. The nature of the complementarities determines the equilibrium skill distribution across cities. We prove that with extreme-skill complementarity, the skill distribution has fatter tails in large cities; with top-skill complementarity, there is first-order stochastic dominance. Using the model to back out skills from wage and house price data, we find robust evidence of fat tails in large cities. Big cities have big inequality. This pattern of spatial sorting is consistent with extreme-skill complementarity: the productivity of the high skilled is enhanced by the providers of low skilled services.