Search Results
Briefing
Inequality in and across Cities
Inequality in the United States has an important spatial component. More-skilled workers tend to live in larger cities where they earn higher wages. Less-skilled workers make lower wages and do not experience similar gains even when they live in those cities. This dynamic implies that larger cities are also more unequal. These relationships appear to have become more pronounced as inequality has increased. The evidence points to externalities among high-skilled workers as a significant contributor to those patterns.
Working Paper
Geospatial Heterogeneity in Inflation: A Market Concentration Story
We study how inflation varies across regions with different income levels and the role of retailer market structure. Using NielsenIQ Retail Scanner and Business Dynamics Statistics data, we document new stylized facts of spatial heterogeneity in food inflation and retailer market structure. From 2006 to 2020, poorer metropolitan statistical areas experienced annualized food inflation that was 0.46 percentage points higher than that of richer ones—amounting to a cumulative difference of 8.8 percentage points over the period. Poorer areas also had fewer goods, fewer retailers, and higher ...
Journal Article
Geographic Inequality in Food Inflation
Using NielsenIQ Retail Scanner data, we study how food inflation varies across regions with different income levels and the role of retailer market structure. From 2006 to 2020, for the average consumer, food prices—as measured by the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for food and beverages—rose by by about 1.8 percent per year. However, this aggregate increase masked substantial spatial heterogeneity. Poorer metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) experienced annualized food inflation that was half a percentage point higher than that of richer ones—amounting to a ...