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], CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - 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 ? 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 1.5 and 3.5 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.

Keywords: mobility costs; spatial frictions; migration; local labor markets; occupation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-09
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02951633
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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 (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)
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