Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP8920
Authors: Pierre-Philippe Combes; Gilles Duranton; Laurent Gobillon; Sébastien Roux
Abstract: This paper provides descriptive evidence about the distribution of wages and skills in denser and less dense employment areas in France. We confirm that on average, workers in denser areas are more skilled. There is also strong overrepresentation of workers with particularly high and low skills in denser areas. These features are consistent with patterns of migration including negative selection of migrants to less dense areas and positive selection towards denser areas. Nonetheless migration, even in the longrun, accounts for little of the skill differences between denser and less dense areas. Finally, we find marked differences across age groups and some suggestions that much of the skill differences across areas can be explained by differences between occupational groups rather than within.
Keywords: skill distribution; sorting; wage distribution
JEL Codes: J31; J61; R12; R23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| employment density (J69) | skill levels (J24) |
| employment density (J69) | wage inequality (J31) |
| skill levels (J24) | wage inequality (J31) |
| migration (F22) | skill differences (J24) |
| parental education and local schooling quality (I24) | skill formation (J24) |
| occupational group differences (J79) | skill differences (J24) |