Frontier workers and the seedbeds of inequality and prosperity
研究了1880至2019年间前沿工作者（从事技术变革前沿工作的人）的地理分布和收入，发现他们最初集中在少数“温床”地点，通过高工资溢价加剧空间不平等，但随着技术成熟，这种经济独特性会减弱。
Abstract This article examines the role of work at the cutting of technological change—frontier work—as a driver of prosperity and spatial income inequality. Using new methods and data, we analyze the geography and incomes of frontier workers from 1880 to 2019. Initially, frontier work is concentrated in a set of ‘seedbed’ locations, contributing to rising spatial inequality through powerful localized wage premiums. As technologies mature, the economic distinctiveness of frontier work diminishes, as ultimately happened to cities like Manchester and Detroit. Our work uncovers a plausible general origin story of the unfolding of spatial income inequality.