Why has job growth over the past decades been weaker in the Dutch Randstad area than in surrounding regions? In a simultaneous equations analysis, we find that employment adjusts to the regional supply of labour. Net internal migration is predominantly determined by regional housing supply and...

According to economic theory, there are no strong reasons to tax (or to subsidise) residential moves, although low levels of taxation may be potentially justified to deal with the presence of externalities and economic stability. This is in contrast to practise in most countries where...

We hypothesize, and test for, a negative effect of the length of the commute on worker’s productivity, by examining whether the commute has a positive effect on worker’s absenteeism. Our estimates for Germany indicate that commuting distance induces absenteeism with an elasticity of about...

In this paper we study how congestion and residential moving behaviour are interrelated using a two-region job search model. Workers choose optimally between interregional commuting and residential moving to live closer to the place of work. This choice affects the external costs of commuting...

We investigate the interaction of regional population and employment in a simu1taneous model, allowing for interregional commuting. The proposed dynamic specification distinguishes between short-run and equilibrium adjustment effects and it encompasses the lagged-adjustment specification that is...

Why are regional unemployment differentials in Europe so persistent if, as the wage curve literature demonstrates, there is no compensation in labour markets? We hypothesize that workers in high-unemployment regions are compensated in housing markets. Modelling regional unemployment...