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Accounting for big city growth in low paid occupations: immigration and/or service class consumption

Gordon, Ian R. and Kaplanis, Ioannis (2012) Accounting for big city growth in low paid occupations: immigration and/or service class consumption. SERC Policy Papers (106). Spatial Economics Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

Growth of 'global cities' in the 1980s was supposed to have involved an occupational polarisation, including growth of low paid service jobs. Though held to be untrue for European cities, at the time, some such growth did emerge in London a decade later than first reported for New York. The question is whether there was simply a delay before London conformed to the global city model, or whether another distinct cause was at work in both cases. This paper proposes that the critical factor in both cases was actually an upsurge of immigration from poor countries providing an elastic supply of cheap labour. This hypothesis and its counterpart based on growth in elite jobs are tested econometrically for the British case with regional data spanning 1975-2008, finding some support for both effects, but with immigration from poor countries as the crucial influence in late 1990s London.

Item Type: Monograph (Report)
Official URL: http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/SERC/publication...
Additional Information: © 2012 The Authors
Divisions: Geography & Environment
Spatial Economics Research Centre
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography
H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
JEL classification: F - International Economics > F2 - International Factor Movements and International Business > F22 - International Migration
J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Time Allocation, Work Behavior, and Employment Determination and Creation; Human Capital; Retirement > J21 - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Time Allocation, Work Behavior, and Employment Determination and Creation; Human Capital; Retirement > J23 - Employment Determination; Job Creation; Demand for Labor; Self-Employment
R - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R12 - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade
Date Deposited: 20 Jun 2012 10:44
Last Modified: 15 Sep 2023 22:19
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/44436

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