  We have studied the chemical potential shift in the electron-doped
superconductor Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ by precise measurements of
core-level photoemission spectra. The result shows that the chemical potential
monotonously increases with electron doping, quite differently from
La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$, where the shift is suppressed in the underdoped
region.
  If the suppression of the shift in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ is attributed
to strong stripe fluctuations, the monotonous increase of the chemical
potential is consistent with the absence of stripe fluctuations in
Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$. The chemical potential jump between
Nd$_{2}$CuO$_{4}$ and La$_{2}$CuO$_{4}$ is found to be much smaller than the
optical band gaps.
