Rapid earnings growth in finance concentrates top earnings in a few large cities

Neumann, Nils and Godechot, Olivier and Henriksen, Lasse Folke and Hermansen, Are Skeie and Hou, Feng and Kodama, Naomi and Lippényi, Zoltán and Melzer, Silvia Maja and Sabanci, Halil and Thaning, Max and Apascaritei, Paula and Holt, Dustin Avent and Bandelj, Nina and Boza, István and Elvira, Marta M. and Hajdu, Gergely and Křížková, Alena and Penner, Andrew and Poje Rožič, Andreja and Rainey, Anthony and Safi, Mirna and Soener, Matthew and Tomaskovic-Devey, Donald (2026) Rapid earnings growth in finance concentrates top earnings in a few large cities. NATURE CITIES, 3. pp. 447-457. ISSN 2731-9997

Preview

Text s44284-026-00407-1.pdf Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Since the 1980s, disproportionate top earnings growth in large cities has fueled a resurgence in the spatial concentration of top earnings across countries in the global north. Research attributes this trend to national top earnings growth or globalization but has left unanswered how national and local top earnings growth coincide and why this phenomenon occurs in cities less central to the global economy. Here we show that earnings growth in finance since the 1980s has concentrated top earnings in the few cities where financial market jobs cluster. Using administrative linked employer–employee data for ten countries in the global north from 1989 to 2019, we show that this pattern extends beyond major global cities to smaller financial cities. Comparing financial cities with similar domestic cities shows that this contribution is not just a byproduct of scale or urban growth. We thus emphasize the role of urban sectoral specialization and the labor markets within these sectors in driving the spatial concentration of top earnings.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item