INTERREGIONAL WAGE DIFFERENTIALS: AN EQUILIBRIUM PERSPECTIVE*
通过分析美国全职工人的数据，检验了两种解释区域间工资差异的理论：劳动力特征差异和回报率差异，发现结构差异很小，关键在于纳入常被忽略的工资决定变量。
ABSTRACT This paper empirically analyzes two competing explanations for observed interregional wage differentials among full‐time U.S. workers: (1) differences in the average levels of market valued labor characteristics, and (2) differences in rates of return to the characteristics. Hedonic wage equations are estimated for broad U.S. regions using detailed measures of human capital, work environment, and personal attributes collected by a national random sample mail survey. Statistical tests reveal little tendency for interregional structural shifts in the wage equations estimated, an outcome which rests on the inclusion of important, but seldom measured, wage determining variables.