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Hugo Lhuillier @hugolhuillier.com · Jun 6

Long-story short:

Employers —and how workers reallocate across them— are crucial at explaining spatial wage disparities.

🔗 If you want to know more: www.hugolhuillier.com/files/papers...

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Hugo Lhuillier @hugolhuillier.com · Jun 6

Understanding the mechanisms behind spatial inequality matters!

For instance: what happens when job mobility slows down?

Big places lose their comparative advantage...
⬇️ Productivity, wages, and the number of workers in large cities shrink
⬆️ Smaller cities expand

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Hugo Lhuillier @hugolhuillier.com · Jun 6

🎯 Key quantitative takeaways

— Spatial wage disparities arise without city-level productivity gaps
— Lifetime earnings are higher in bigger cities — even for workers with lower real earnings as they climb a steeper ladder

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Hugo Lhuillier @hugolhuillier.com · Jun 6

How does this work?

Productive employers agglomerate in big places to maximize their size
✅ The local competition for workers intensify ➡️ high-paying jobs are concentrated there
✅ Low-paying jobs persist — because workers out of unemployment have little bargaining power

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Hugo Lhuillier @hugolhuillier.com · Jun 6

To explain this, I build a spatial model with two features:
1️⃣ Employers vary in productivity, and they choose where to produce
2️⃣ Labor markets are frictional, and workers climb local job ladders

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Hugo Lhuillier @hugolhuillier.com · Jun 6

Using French matched employer-employee data, I find:
📌 High-paying jobs are concentrated in big cities 
📌 Low-paying jobs are everywhere 
📌 Workers access high wages in large cities as they switch from low- to high-paying jobs over time

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Hugo Lhuillier @hugolhuillier.com · Jun 6

🚨 New working paper 🚨

In large cities, wages are higher. But so are inequalities. In fact, low-wage workers earn lower real earnings there.

Why? What drives spatial wage disparities? Why some workers work at lower real wages in large cities?

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

NBER @nber.org · Apr 10

A spatial equilibrium model with heterogeneous households holding general non-homothetic preferences over tradable goods and housing, from Cécile Gaubert and Frédéric Robert-Nicoud https://www.nber.org/papers/w33652

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

AEA Journals @aeajournals.bsky.social · Mar 31

Forthcoming in the JEL: "Housing and Inequality" by Yannis M. Ioannides and L. Rachel Ngai. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Housing and Inequality

(Forthcoming Article) - We approach the literature on housing and inequality from two angles. One is the impact of unequal endowments on housing. The second is the “memberships” inequality associated ...

www.aeaweb.org

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

NBER @nber.org · Mar 22

Using survey data from Germany combined with an 'what is the optimal length of the workweek' model suggests 37 hours, from Gregor Jarosch, Laura Pilossoph, and Anthony Swaminathan https://www.nber.org/papers/w33577

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

AEA Journals @aeajournals.bsky.social · Mar 12

Forthcoming in AEJ: Macroeconomics: "Cognitive Hubs and Spatial Redistribution" by Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, Pierre-Daniel Sarte, and Felipe Schwartzman. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Cognitive Hubs and Spatial Redistribution

(Forthcoming Article) - In the US, cognitive non-routine (CNR) occupations are disproportionately and increasingly represented in large cities. To study the allocation of workers across cities, we pro...

www.aeaweb.org

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

Milena Almagro @milena-almagro.bsky.social · Feb 12

We've just opened a new @beckerfriedman.bsky.social pre-doc position through the International Economics and Economic Geography Initiative:

job-boards.greenhouse.io/universityof...

Come work with us! The trade and spatial group at UChicago is a top-notch place to start your academic career!

Research Professional – International Economics and Economic Geography Initiative (Full-Time, Benefits Eligible)

Chicago, IL

job-boards.greenhouse.io

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

Ben Golub @bengolub.bsky.social · Feb 2

Modern supply chains don't look like trade theory 101!

They involve constant border crossings, each now hit by tariffs.

Tariffs raise prices, but the more important thing they do is disrupt supply relationships.

1/

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

The Review of Economic Studies (REStud) @reveconstudies.bsky.social · Jan 29

Recently accepted to #REStud, ``Wealth Inequality and Asset Prices'' from Matthieu Gomez:

www.restud.com/wealth-inequ...

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

NBER @nber.org · Jan 29

Studying preferences over the demographic composition of co-patrons. Racial homophily does not vary by income. These preferences can explain much of income segregation, from Victor Couture, Jonathan I. Dingel, Allison E. Green, and Jessie Handbury https://www.nber.org/papers/w33386

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

Joseph Shapiro @joseph-s-shapiro.bsky.social · Jan 26

1/🚨New chapter in Handbook of Regional & Urban Economics: Spatial Environmental Economics

🌍 How do spatial forces affect the environment? How does enviro shape spatial outcomes?

Thread, chapter explore this nascent subfield via stylized acts, models, building blocks for rsrch. w Clare Balboni.

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

Empirical Macroeconomics Policy Center of Texas @empctmacrotx.bsky.social · Jan 15

As climate change intensifies, extreme weather events like the fires in LA pose growing threats to economies.

A blog post by @nityanayar.bsky.social, Juanma Castro-Vincenzi, Gaurav Khanna and @nicomorales.bsky.social discusses how firms adapt supply chains to these risks:
tinyurl.com/abbw5mt3

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

Trade Diversion (Jonathan Dingel) @tradediversion.bsky.social · Jan 13

A lot to chew on in this issue of AEJ: Applied: #econsky

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

NBER @nber.org · Dec 17

Featured in the latest Digest: "Gender, Career Opportunities, and the Relocation Decisions of Couples"
https://www.nber.org/digest/202412/gender-career-opportunities-and-relocation-decisions-couples

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

Sam Joiner @samjoiner.bsky.social · Dec 16

NEW: Chinese companies have doubled their industrial footprint in Mexico in three years — a development that is emblematic of the closer ties that are poised to thrust Mexico into the centre of Trump’s trade war with Beijing.

ig.ft.com/china-mexico...

How China is setting up shop in Mexico

An increasingly close trade relationship is causing concern in Washington

ig.ft.com

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

The Quarterly Journal of Economics @qjeharvard.bsky.social · Dec 13

Recently accepted by #QJE, “Putting Quantitative Models to the Test: An Application to the US-China Trade War,” by Adão, Costinot, and Donaldson: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...

pendingpublications

Pending Publication

doi.org

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

The Quarterly Journal of Economics @qjeharvard.bsky.social · Dec 13

Recently accepted by #QJE, “The Global Race for Talent: Brain Drain, Knowledge Transfer, and Growth,” by Marta Prato: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...

The Global Race for Talent: Brain Drain, Knowledge Transfer, and Growth*

Abstract. How does inventors’ migration affect international talent allocation, knowledge diffusion, and productivity growth? To answer this question, I bu

doi.org

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

Nicolas Gendron-Carrier @nicgc.bsky.social · Dec 11

Job market update: McGill Econ is hiring!

Please encourage your students to apply as soon as possible if interested.

econjobmarket.org/positions/11...

EJM - Econ Job Market

econjobmarket.org

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

Pol Antras @pantras.bsky.social · Dec 11

I've now turned the BBVA-EEA Lecture I gave in San Antonio in January and in Madrid this week into a working paper: scholar.harvard.edu/sites/schola...

The paper will come out in the Journal of the European Econ. Assoc. some time next year, but it's not a final version yet. Comments most welcome!

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Reposted by Hugo Lhuillier

Lukas Freund @lukasfreund.bsky.social · Dec 9

💥New version of "Superstar Teams"

lukasbfreund.github.io/files/freund...

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