Recalculating...: How Uncertainty in Local Labor Market Definitions Affects Empirical Findings

Andrew Foote, Mark Kutzbach and Lars Vilhuber

Working Papers from U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies

Abstract: This paper evaluates the use of commuting zones as a local labor market definition. We revisit Tolbert and Sizer (1996) and demonstrate the sensitivity of definitions to two features of the methodology: a cluster dissimilarity cutoff, or the count of clusters, and uncertainty in the input data. We show how these features impact empirical estimates using a standard application of commuting zones and an example from related literature. We conclude with advice to researchers on how to demonstrate the robustness of empirical findings to uncertainty in the definition of commuting zones

Keywords: Local labor markets; commuting; measurement error; Sensitivity analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C13 C63 J21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2017-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2017/CES-WP-17-49R.pdf Revised version, 2021 (application/pdf)
https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2017/CES-WP-17-49.pdf First version, 2017 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Recalculating...: How Uncertainty in Local Labour Market Definitions Affects Empirical Findings (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cen:wpaper:17-49

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