Job search in thick markets

Journal of Urban Economics, 2011, vol. 69, issue 3, 303-318

Abstract: I analyze empirically the effects of urban and industrial agglomeration on both search behavior and the efficiency of matching. The analysis is based on a unique panel data set from the Italian Labor Force Survey micro-data, covering 520 randomly drawn Local Labor Market Areas (66% of the total) over the four quarters of 2002. I compute transition probabilities from non-employment to employment by jointly estimating the probability of searching and the probability of finding a job conditional on having searched. I then test whether these are affected by market size, industrial variety and/or industry specialization. The main results indicate that market size and industry-specialization raise job seekers' chances of finding employment (conditional on having searched), while industrial variety is not significantly different from zero. Finally, the effect of agglomeration on non-employed individuals' search behavior cannot be significantly distinguished from zero.

Keywords: Labor; market; transitions; Search; intensity; Urbanization; Industry; localization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (45)

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Working Paper: Job Search in Thick Markets (2000)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juecon:v:69:y:2011:i:3:p:303-318

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