Ratio Working Paper No. 256: Migration, Careers and the Urban Wage Premium: Does Human Capital Matter?

PublikationWorking paper
A. V. William Clark, Arbetsmarknad, Ekonomisk geografi, Kompetens, Kompetens för tillväxt, Lönebildning, Martin Korpi

Sammanfattning

Using detailed Swedish full population data on regional migrants, this paper addresses the question of whether the urban wage premium, and “thick” labor market matching effects, are found only among the higher educated or across all educational groups, and whether the urban population threshold for these type of effects varies by educational category. Estimating initial wages, average wage level and wage growth 2001-2009, we find similar matching effects for all educational groups in the three largest metropolitan areas, but very weak effects for cities ranked 4th – 6th in the urban hierarchy. Our findings suggest that positive urban matching effects are not limited to those with higher education, but that there are distinct population thresholds for these type of effects, regardless of educational background.

Related content: Migration and Occupational Careers

Korpi, M. & Clark, W. A. V. (2015). Migration, Careers and the Urban Wage Premium: Does Human Capital Matter? Ratio Working Paper No. 256.


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Stadsstorlek och konkurrens bland arbetsgivare: Hur påverkas lönepremier och inkomstojämlikhet?
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Halvarsson, D., & Korpi, M.
Publiceringsår

2025

Publicerat i

Institutet för arbetsmarknads- och utbildningspolitisk utvärdering.

Sammanfattning

I föreliggande studie undersöker vi den s.k. storstadslönepremien och dess förhållande till arbetsgivarkoncentration inom lokala arbetsmarknader. Med storstadslönepremien avses det positiva samband som – allt annat lika – finns mellan löneinkomst och stadstorlek. Vi skattar denna lönepremie både utifrån traditionella metoder och ett nytt beräkningssätt som utgår från företagsspecifika faktorer (företagsfixa effekter), och finner att dessa två beräkningssätt i stort sett ger likvärdiga resultat, något som talar för att storstadslönepremien såsom den vanligen skattas sannolikt även är kopplad till faktorer som ligger på företagsnivå snarare än endast faktorer på individnivå.  Beroende på analysmetod finner vi därefter att ungefär 20-30 procent av lönepremien kan förklaras av graden av konkurrens om arbetskraften inom lokala branscher. Även om detta samband gäller för alla inkomstsegment, finner vi slutligen att graden av konkurrens har störst påverkan på toppinkomstnivåer inom lokala arbetsmarknader (över den 90:e percentilen). Våra resultat går alltså att tolka som att lokal arbetsgivarkoncentration även påverkar inkomstojämlikheten inom lokala arbets­marknader.

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Working paperPublikation
Halvarsson, D., & Korpi, M.
Publiceringsår

2025

Publicerat i

Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU)

Sammanfattning

This study investigates the relationship between the urban wage premium and employer concentration using Swedish full population employer-employee data. Departing from an AKM modeling framework to distinguish worker from firm specific heterogeneity – a measure of rent-sharing – we then measure the urban wage premium using differences in the estimated firm fixed effects at the level of local industries, nested within local labor markets. Our results suggest that labor market employer concentration, as calculated using the Hirschman-Herfindahl index and a leave-one-out instrumental variable design, can account for a significant share of the estimated urban wage premium (UWP). Addressing city-level wage income inequality by applying our model to different segments of the local labor market income distribution, we find that while the UWP pertains to all income segments, it is largest for top-income levels (above the 90th percentile), and within this segment employer concentration also has the largest explanatory power. Thus, while being an important explanatory factor for all percentiles of the local income distribution, a relatively lower employer concentration within larger cities, and vice versa, higher concentration within smaller cities, primarily help explain the variance of top wages within these cities/labor markets.

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Artikel (med peer review)Publikation
Mihaescu, O., Korpi, M., & Öner, Ö.
Publiceringsår

2024

Publicerat i

The Annals of Regional Science

Sammanfattning

We study the effects of new shopping centre developments on the performance of 7041 retail and hospitality firms located in the suburbs of Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. In particular, we analyse to what extent these effects vary with respect to the distance to, and characteristics of, these newly established centres. Exploiting data covering a 17-year period (2000–2016) in a fixed-effects panel regression framework, we find that the establishment of new neighbourhood centres is associated with an average increase in revenues and employment for retail incumbents by + 1.80% and + 1.20%, respectively, for each 100-m reduction in distance to the respective centre. Similarly, the introduction of large regional centres is associated with an increase in the revenues and employment of hospitality firms by + 1.40% and + 1.20%, respectively, for every 100-m decrease in proximity to the new shopping centre. Retail firms are affected by regional centres only in terms of their revenues, which increase by + 0.70% for each 100-m decrease in distance. Our results indicate a diminishing impact of both regional and neighbourhood centres with increased distance, suggesting a broader geographical reach for the effects of regional centres.

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