Junge und gut ausgebildete Menschen sind besonders mobil. Seit 2004 ziehen sie zunehmend in die Städte und gründen ihre Familien dort. In der Folge steigt auf dem Land das Durchschnittsalter und es fehlt dort zunehmend an hochqualifizierten Arbeitskräften und Schulabgängern....

In a number of papers A.J. Oswald (1996, 1997) argues that high rates of home ownership may imply inferior labour market outcomes. This paper tests the Oswald hypothesis in a panel of 42 Belgian districts since the 1970s. The use of data going back to 1970 allows us to embed the Oswald...

Relying on census data collected in 2002 and historical weather data for Uganda, we estimate the impact of weather-induced internal migration on the probability for non-migrants living in the destination regions to be employed. Our results reveal a significant negative impact. Consistent with...

When mobility between locations is frictional, a person's economic well-being is partially determined by her place of birth. Using a life cycle model of mobility, we find that search frictions are the main impairment to the mobility of young people in Spain, and these frictions are particularly...

We investigate the role of migration and housing constraints in determining income inequality within and across Chinese cities. Combining microdata and a spatial equilibrium model, we quantify the impact of the massive spatial reallocation of workers and the rapid growth of housing costs on the...

Existing empirical literature provides converging evidence that selective emigration enhances human capital accumulation in the world's poorest countries. However, the within-country distribution of such brain gain effects has received limited attention. Focusing on Senegal, we provide evidence...

Blacks have lower geographical mobility rates than whites even though blacks have several characteristics that are usually associated with high mobility rates such as low home ownership rate, high unemployment rate, and low marriage rate. This apparent contradiction can be explained by the role...

We present new evidence on the wage and mobility of young and old workers, which is difficult to explain using standard human capital theory. Instead, we propose a simple dynamic extension of the Roy model, where worker migration and wages are jointly determined at the individual level....

Americans believe that undocumented immigrants are exploiting the United States' economy. The widespread belief is that illegal aliens cost more in government services than they contribute to the economy. This belief is undeniably false. [E]very empirical study of illegals' economic impact...

We develop a measure of chronic joblessness among prime-age men and women in the United States - termed the detachment rate - that identifies those who have been out of the labor force for more than a year. We show that the detachment rate more than doubled for men since the early 1980s and rose...