Regional Inequality and ‘The New Geography of Jobs’
What explains the wide range of economic growth and prosperity across U.S. regions, and why is it so hard for struggling metro areas to reverse multi-decade trends? These are the questions that urban economist Enrico Moretti addresses in The New Geography of Jobs. In his vision, innovative workers and companies create prosperity that flows broadly, but these gains are mostly metropolitan in scale, meaning that geography substantially determines economic vitality. To start, the book offers a hopeful interpretation of technological change and globalization. Moretti argues that moving low-skilled jobs out of the United States has allowed tech companies to increase productivity and expand employment at home for high-skilled workers, while lowering prices for American consumers. Unless they lose their job as a result, low-income consumers benefit disproportionately because they spend a higher share of their incomes on cheap imported goods.
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