We consider a model of international migration where skills of workers are imperfectly observed by firms in the host country and where information asymmetries are more severe for immigrants than for natives. There are two stages. In the first one, workers in the South decide whether to move and...

Destination countries have been resorting to selective immigration policies to improve migrants' quality. We propose a model that analyzes the effects of selective immigration policies on migrants' quality, measured by their wages at destination. Screening potential migrants on the basis of...

We present a new way of modelling local labour markets by linking the space of workers' skills and the physical space of cities. The key lesson of our analysis is that firms exploit workers in these two spaces by setting wages that are below the competitive level. The degree of monopsony power...

In this Paper, an explicit micro scenario is developed which yields a well-defined aggregate job-matching function. In particular, a stochastic model of job-matching behaviour is constructed in which the system steady state is shown to be approximated by an exponential-type matching function, as...

We develop a search-matching model with rural-urban migration and an explicit land market. Wages, job creation, urban housing prices are endogenous and we characterize the steady-state equilibrium. We then consider three different policies: a transportation policy that improves the public...

This paper studies the role of strong versus weak ties in the rural-to-urban migration decision in China. We first develop a network model that puts forward the different roles of weak and strong ties in helping workers to migrate to the city. We then use a unique longitudinal data that allows...

We develop a model where the unemployed workers in the city can find a job either directly or through weak or strong ties. We show that, in denser areas, individuals choose to interact with more people and meet more random encounters (weak ties) than in sparsely populated areas. We also...

Cities are often viewed as places fostering employment. It is shown that the choice of a particular location within a city is a key factor for the creation of jobs by a new firm. This question is addressed in the context of a standard urban model in which existing firms are established at the...

The spatial dispersion of economic agents is an immediate determinant of informational imperfections. We investigate how this dispersion creates search frictions and thus rationing. For that, we develop a model of local labour markets in which workers' search efficiency is negatively affected by...

Assuming that job search efficiency decreases with distance to jobs, workers’ location in a city depends on spatial elements such as commuting costs and land prices and on labour elements such as wages and the matching technology. In the absence of moving costs, we show that there exists a...