Cities and skills

Workers in cities earn 33% more than their nonurban counterparts. A large a mount of evidence suggests that this premium is not just the result of high er ability workers living in cities, which means that cities make workers m ore productive. Evidence on migrants and the cross effect between urban sta tus and experience implies that a significant fraction of the urban wage pr emium accrues to workers over time and stays with them when they leave citi es. Therefore, a portion of the urban wage premium is a wage growth, not a wage level, effect;. This evidence suggests that cities speed the accumulat ion of human capital.