打印

作者

来源

JOURNAL OF URBAN ECONOMICS,Vol.105,P.162-175

语言

英文

关键字

Trade liberalization; City size; Spatial adjustment; Natural quasi-experiment; SPATIAL ECONOMY; WAGES; LIBERALIZATION; FRICTIONS; GEOGRAPHY; WELFARE; REFORM

作者单位

[Brulhart, Marius] Univ Lausanne, Fac Business & Econ HEC Lausanne, Dept Econ, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. [Brulhart, Marius; Carrere, Celine; Robert-Nicoud, Frederic] CEPR, London, England. [Carrere, Celine] Univ Geneva, Global Studies Inst, CH-1204 Geneva, Switzerland. [Carrere, Celine; Robert-Nicoud, Frederic] Univ Geneva, Geneva Sch Econ & Management, CH-1204 Geneva, Switzerland. [Robert-Nicoud, Frederic] London Sch Econ, Spatial Econ Res Ctr, London, England. Brulhart, M (reprint author), Univ Lausanne, Fac Business & Econ HEC Lausanne, Dept Econ, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. E-Mail: Marius.Brulhart@unil.ch; celine.carrere@unige.ch; Frederic.Robert-Nicoud@unige.ch

摘要

We study the effects of changes in trade openness on wages and employment across towns of different sizes, using Austrian regional data and the fall of the Iron Curtain as a quasi-experimental setting. We find improved access to foreign markets to boost both employment and nominal wages in border regions, but large towns tend to have larger wage responses and smaller employment responses than small towns. These adjustment patterns are consistent with a multi-region model featuring labor supply elasticities that vary with town size. The implied differential border-town welfare gains are related non-monotonically to town size, peaking at a population level of about 150,000.