Why Has Regional Income Convergence in the U.S. Declined? / Peter Ganong, Daniel W. Shoag.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ganong, Peter.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Shoag, Daniel W.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w23609.

NBER working paper series no. w23609

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2017.

Summary:

The past thirty years have seen a dramatic decline in the rate of income convergence across states and in population flows to high-income places. These changes coincide with a disproportionate increase in housing prices in high-income places, a divergence in the skill-specific returns to moving to high-income places, and a redirection of low-skill migration away from high-income places. We develop a model in which rising housing prices in high-income areas deter low-skill migration and slow income convergence. Using a new panel measure of housing supply regulations, we demonstrate the importance of this channel in the data.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2017.