TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bernard,Andrew B.
AU  - Redding,Stephen
AU  - Schott,Peter K.
AU  - Simpson,Helen
TI  - Relative Wage Variation and Industry Location
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9998
PY  - 2003
Y2  - September 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9998
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9998.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Andrew B. Bernard
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
100 Tuck Hall
Hanover, NH  03755
Tel: 603/646-0302
Fax: 603/646-0995
E-Mail: Andrew.B.Bernard@dartmouth.edu

Stephen J. Redding
Department of Economics
and Woodrow Wilson School
Princeton University
Fisher Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544
Tel: 609/258-4016
Fax: 609/258-6419
E-Mail: reddings@princeton.edu

Peter K. Schott
Yale School of Management
135 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06520-8200
Tel: 203/436-4260
Fax: 203/432-6974
E-Mail: peter.schott@yale.edu

Helen Simpson
The Centre for Market and Public Organisation
Bristol Institute of Public Affairs
University of Bristol
2 Priory Road
Bristol BS8 1TX
United Kingdom
E-Mail: Helen.Simpson@bristol.ac.uk
AB  - Relative wages vary considerably across regions of the United Kingdom, with skill-abundant regions exhibiting lower skill premia than skill-scarce regions. This paper shows that the location of economic activity is correlated with the variation in relative wages. U.K. regions with low skill premia produce different sets of manufacturing industries than regions with high skill premia. Relative wages are also linked to subsequent economic development: over time, increases in the employment share of skill-intensive industries are greater in regions with lower initial skill premia. Both results suggest firms adjust production across and within regions in response to relative wage differences.
ER  -