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Job Mobility and Wages of Workers from Shrinking Cities

Sangyun JEONG 1 Up Lim 1

1연세대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Questions have been raised about the long-held beliefs regarding population growth and urban expansion. While scholars across a variety of disciplines have discussed shrinkage in terms of indicators, consequences, and policy responses, a lack of understanding of the process of urban shrinkage persists. In this study, we analyzed the job mobility behaviour of workers from shrinking cities and examined the wage premium of working in growing cities. The results demonstrate that shrinking cities experienced difficulties with attracting stable employment opportunities, and the ratio of highly skilled workers was consistently low in shrinking cities. The outflow of workers from shrinking cities is concentrated in certain classes, occupations, and industries. The results of estimation using instrumental variables confirmed that there is no significant wage premium for workers moving from shrinking cities to growing cities; the wage gap is explained by the differences in occupation, industry, and unobserved worker characteristics. The results of this study are expected to expand the understanding of local labour market changes in shrinking cities and contribute to deriving policy measures against urban decline.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.