Geographic Mobility of Youth and Spatial Gaps in Local College and Labor Market Opportunities

Shoya Ishimaru

Journal of Labor Economics, 2025, vol. 43, issue 4, 1251 - 1294

Abstract: This paper investigates the mechanisms underlying the causal link between childhood location and adulthood economic outcomes. I develop and estimate a dynamic model of individual choice of whether and where to attend college and where to work, accounting for home preferences, spatial search frictions, and moving costs. The estimated model suggests that spatial gaps in college and labor market opportunities, which stem from imperfect mobility in adulthood, play a more important role than variation in childhood neighborhood quality in explaining why children from different counties with similar family backgrounds achieve different economic outcomes in adulthood.

Date: 2025
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