TY  - JOUR
AU  - Forman,Chris
AU  - Goldfarb,Avi
AU  - Greenstein,Shane
TI  - The Internet and Local Wages: Convergence or Divergence?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14750
PY  - 2009
Y2  - February 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14750
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14750.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Christopher Forman
Georgia Institute of Technology
College of Management
800 West Peachtree Street, NW
Atlanta
GA 30308
USA
E-Mail: chris.forman@mgt.gatech.edu

Avi Goldfarb
Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto
105 St George St
Toronto, ON M5S 3E6
E-Mail: agoldfarb@rotman.utoronto.ca

Shane Greenstein
The Elinor and Wendell Hobbs Professor
Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University
2001 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL  60208-2013
Tel: 847/467-5672
Fax: 847/467-1777
E-Mail: greenstein@kellogg.northwestern.edu
AB  - How did the diffusion of the internet affect regional wage inequality? We examine the relationship between business use of advanced internet technology and local variation in US wage growth between 1995 and 2000. We find no evidence that the internet contributed to regional wage convergence. Advanced internet technology is associated with larger wage growth in places that were already well off. These are places with highly educated and large urban populations, and concentration of IT-intensive industry. Overall, advanced internet explains over half of the difference in wage growth between these counties and all others.
ER  -