Why Are Low-Skilled Workers Less Mobile? The Role of Mobility Costs and Spatial Frictions

Benoit Schmutz, Modibo Sidibé and Elie Vidal-Naquet
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Modibo Sidibé: Duke University [Durham]
Elie Vidal-Naquet: AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Workers' propensity to migrate to another local labor market varies a lot by occupation. We use the model developed by Schmutz and Sidibé (2019) to quantify the impact of mobility costs and search frictions on this mobility gap. We estimate the model on a matched employer-employee panel dataset describing labor market transitions within and between the 30 largest French cities for two groups at both ends of the occupational spectrum and find that: (i) mobility costs are very comparable in the two groups, so they are three times higher for blue-collar workers relative to their respective expected income; (ii) Depending on employment status, spatial frictions are between 2 and 3 times higher for blue-collar workers; (iii) Moving subsidies have little (and possibly negative) impact on the mobility gap, contrary to policies targeting spatial frictions; (iv) Mobility-enhancing policies have almost no impact on the unemployment gap.

Keywords: mobility costs; spatial frictions; migration; local labor markets; occupation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-06
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Published in Annals of Economics and Statistics, 2021, 142, pp.283-304. ⟨10.15609/annaeconstat2009.142.0283⟩

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Related works:
Journal Article: Why Are Low-Skilled Workers Less Mobile? The Role of Mobility Costs and Spatial Frictions (2021)
Working Paper: Why are Low-Skilled Workers less Mobile? The Role of Mobility Costs and Spatial Frictions (2020)
Working Paper: Why are Low-Skilled Workers less Mobile ? The role of Mobility Costs and Spatial Frictions (2020)
Working Paper: Why are Low-Skilled Workers less Mobile? The Role of Mobility Costs and Spatial Frictions (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03354047

DOI: 10.15609/annaeconstat2009.142.0283

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