The return to big-city experience: Evidence from refugees in Denmark

2022/04/14 by Fabian Eckert, Mads Hejlesen, Conor Walsh · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Housing Market and Economics

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.jue.2022.103454

openalex publication_date 2022/04/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02

Abstract

We offer causal evidence of higher returns to experience in big cities. Exploiting a natural experiment that settled refugees across labor markets in Denmark between 1986 and 1998, we find that refugees initially earned similar wages across locations. However, those placed in Copenhagen exhibited 35% faster wage growth with each additional year of experience. Faster sorting of workers toward the type of establishments, occupations, and industries typically found in cities accounts for the vast majority of this urban wage-growth premium.

Citations

• Goods trade, factor mobility and welfare
• A Spatial Knowledge Economy
• From sectoral to functional urban specialisation
• Spatial wage disparities: Sorting matters!
• Understanding the City Size Wage Gap
• Cities and Skills
• Spatial Sorting

Discussions

• https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2022.103454 [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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