Location, Search Costs and Youth Unemployment: Experimental Evidence from Transport Subsidies in Addis Ababa

Simon Franklin

SERC Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Do high search costs affect the labour market outcomes of job seekers living far away from jobs? I randomly assign transport subsidies to unemployed youth in urban Ethiopia. Treated respondents increase job search intensity, and are more likely to find good employment. Subsidies also reduce participation in temporary work during job search. I explain these results with a dynamic model of job search, in which cash constraints cause workers to give up search too early. The predictions of the model closely match the trajectory of treatment effects over time, which I estimate using a weekly phone call survey.

Keywords: job search; spatial mismatch; unemployment; cash constraints; urban; transpor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J61 J64 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-tre and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:sercdp:0199

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