Skills across the Urban-Rural Hierarchy

Abstract

This paper examines the vertical and horizontal dimensions of human capital across regions within the U.S., ranging from densely populated city centers to isolated and sparsely populated rural areas. To do so, we classify detailed geographic areas into categories along the entire urban-rural hierarchy. An occupation-based cluster analysis is then used to complement the conventional measure of human capital, based on college attainment, by measuring the types of skills available in the regional workforce. We find that differences in human capital across the urban-rural hierarchy are related to both the types of work performed in urban and rural areas and that a higher share of college-educated workers is present in urban areas regardless of the skills typically required to perform the job.