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Industry localisation and earnings inequality: Evidence from U.S. manufacturing *
Author(s) -
Wheeler Christopher H.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
papers in regional science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.937
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1435-5957
pISSN - 1056-8190
DOI - 10.1111/j.1435-5957.2007.00107.x
Subject(s) - earnings , metropolitan area , inequality , labour economics , productivity , wage inequality , wage dispersion , economics , manufacturing , manufacturing sector , wage , demographic economics , business , efficiency wage , geography , economic growth , mathematical analysis , mathematics , accounting , archaeology , marketing
. While the productivity gains associated with the geographic concentration of industry (i.e., localisation) are by now well‐documented, little work has considered how those gains are distributed across individual workers. This article offers evidence on the connection between total employment and the relative wage earnings of high‐ and low‐skill workers (i.e., inequality) within two‐digit manufacturing industries across the states, and a collection of metropolitan areas in the U.S. between 1970 and 1990. Using measures of overall, between‐education‐group and residual inequality, I find that wage dispersion falls significantly as industry employment expands.