Does City Structure Affect the Labor Market Outcomes of Black Workers?

Harris Selod () and Yves Zenou

No 928, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In this paper, location choices are driven by households (both blacks and whites) consciously choosing to trade off proximity to neighbors of similar racial backgrounds for proximity to jobs. Because of coordination failures in the location choices, multiple urban equilibria emerge. There is a ‘Spatial-Mismatch Equilibrium’ in which blacks reside far away from jobs and experience high unemployment rates and a ‘Spatial-Matching Equilibrium’ in which blacks are closer to jobs and experience lower unemployment rates. Under some reasonable condition, we demonstrate that all workers are better off under the Spatial-Matching Equilibrium, leaving a role for policy intervention.

Keywords: social networks; racial preferences; multiple equilibria; spatial mismatch; labor discrimination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2003-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published - published in: Journal of Urban Economics, 2013, 74, 113-132.

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