Skilled Scalable Services: The New Urban Bias in Economic Growth

Arbeitspapier

Since 1980, economic growth in the U.S. has been fastest in its largest cities. We show that a group of skill- and information-intensive service industries are responsible for all of this new urban bias in recent growth. We then propose a simple explanation centered around the interaction of three factors: the disproportionate reliance of these services on information and communication technology (ICT), the precipitous price decline for ICT capital since 1980, and the preexisting comparative advantage of cities in skilled services. Quantitatively, our mechanism accounts for most of the urban biased growth of the U.S. economy in recent decades.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 8705

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials ; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes ; Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes ; Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity
• Subject: urban growth ; high-skill services ; technological change

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Eckert, Fabian ; Ganapati, Sharat ; Walsh, Conor
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/229523
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET