Ethnic Unemployment Rates and Frictional Markets

Laurent Gobillon, Peter Rupert () and Etienne Wasmer
Additional contact information
Peter Rupert: University of California, Santa Barbara

No 7448, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The unemployment rate in France is roughly 6 percentage points higher for African immigrants than for natives. In the US the unemployment rate is approximately 9 percentage points higher for blacks than for whites. Commute time data indicates that minorities face longer commute times to work, potentially reflecting more difficult access to jobs. In this paper we investigate the impact of spatial mismatch on the unemployment rate of ethnic groups using the matching model proposed by Rupert and Wasmer (2012). We find that spatial factors explain between 1 to 1.5 percentage points of the unemployment rate gap in both France and the US, amounting to 17% to 25% of the relative gap in France and about 10% in the US. Among these factors, differences in commuting distance plays the most important role. In France, though, longer commuting distances may be mitigated by higher mobility in the housing market for African workers. Overall, we still conclude that labor market factors remain the main explanation for the higher unemployment rate of Africans.

Keywords: spatial mismatch hypotheses; commuting; job acceptance; ethnic unemployment rates (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J61 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2013-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published in: Journal of Urban Economics, 2014, 79, 108-120

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https://docs.iza.org/dp7448.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Ethnic unemployment rates and frictional markets (2014)
Working Paper: Ethnic unemployment rates and frictional markets (2014)
Working Paper: Ethnic unemployment rates and frictional markets (2014)
Working Paper: Ethnic unemployment rates and frictional markets (2014)
Working Paper: Ethnic Unemployment Rates and Frictional Markets (2013)
Working Paper: Ethnic Unemployment Rates and Frictional Markets (2013)
Working Paper: Ethnic Unemployment Rates and Frictional Markets (2013)
Working Paper: Ethnic Unemployment Rates and Frictional Markets (2013)
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