Do Preferences for Urban Amenities Really Differ by Skill?

City-level policies often aim at attracting skilled workers by improving urban amenities. However,due to endogeneity problems, studies relying on revealed preferences have difficulties in providingevidence for the basic premise that place a higher value amenities thanless individuals. Therefore, we use stated-preference experiment directly examinepreferences In custom survey, elicit hypothetical job choices betweentwo cities differ wages and set of We find are importantdeterminants city choice, with respondents willing forgo significant fraction their wage tolive better Most strikingly, do not any preference heterogeneitybetween differing education or creative class membership. Instead, uncover largeheterogeneities mainly along family-related mobility constraints unobserved dimensions. Ourresults imply there is much scope amenity-oriented improve local skillmix. Rather, skill bias reflects incapability less individuals afford livingin moving preferred places, resulting welfare losses.