 Job Networks in Izmir: Why are Migrants Different?No 5245, EcoMod2013 from EcoMod Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate the network effect on the probability of job finding. This paper uses a specific data set from the Izmir region, prepared by the Turkish Statistical Institute for a specific project carried out by Izmir University of Economics in cooperation with the Izmir Commerce Centre, the Izmir branch of the Turkish Statistical Institute and the Turkish Labour Institute. Its aim was to investigate the labour market situation of Izmir and to understand the main problems of labour market and reasons of unemployment and suggest possible policy implications. During this study we found that the migrants who have moved to Izmir five years or more ago have higher probability to find a job than Izmir born ones. The same argument is also valid for the ones who moved less than two years ago. Only the ones that have moved 2-5 years ago have less chance to find a job. These trends show also difference according to the gender. Furthermore, it is found that migrants tend to earn more relative to the natives. This variety made us think that it will be interesting to analyze this subject a bit deeper. Izmir is the third biggest city in Turkey and has been one of the preferred destinations of migrants. Izmir attracts both skilled and unskilled migrants. Moreover, we believe doing such an analysis at a local level is more promising than doing it in the state level, as it will be easier to isolate the network effects in local level. The paper aims to analyze how the network effect differs between skilled and unskilled people and the nonlinearity in the network effects. It is assumed that the more time spent in a city, the larger is the network and quality of the network connections depend on the job seeker’s qualifications. Using Armengol and Jackson (2007) theoretical model and the empirical framework of Munshi (2003), a probit model that estimates the probability of being employed is used. In the model personal characteristics, the sectors, and the number of years spent in Izmir are controlled for. Moreover, the education levels and occupations of the parents are used as proxies for the size and the quality of the network. It is expected to find nonlinearity in network effects. We also expect to find higher influence of quality of network with respect to its dimension. It will be also interesting to investigate whether network effects differ according to the gender or not. Keywords: Turkey; Labor market issues; Regional modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ekd:004912:5245 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in EcoMod2013 from EcoMod Contact information at EDIRC. |
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