CEG-IST members António Sérgio Ribeiro, Rui Baptista and Francisco Lima recently published the article "Wage inequality, entrepreneurship and creative people in regional labour markets" in the Regional Studies Journal. The article explores the impact of entrepreneurship and creative occupations on wage inequality in regional labour markets, through the application of dynamic models to longitudinal linked employer–employee data for Portugal. The results indicate that regional labour markets where job creation by new firms is stronger and creative occupations represent a greater proportion of total employment are associated with greater inequality. The wage structures of new firms are less compressed than those of incumbents. New firms pay lower average wages but offer a greater share of high-paying jobs. Opportunity-based entrepreneurship and creative occupations are linked to a higher share of top earners.
