The wage curve literature consistently finds a negative relationship between regional unemployment rates and regional wages; the most widely accepted theoretical explanations interpret the unemployment rate as a measure of job competition. This paper proposes new ways of measuring job...

The New Economic Geography predicts a positive effect of market access on wages, as represented by the wage equation. Several studies provide empirical evidence in favor of the wage equation. However, a key problem is the endogeneity of market access: it is challenging to identify the causal...

The literature on the wage curve provides considerable evidence in favor of a negative relationship between unemployment and wages. It is thus often seen as a refutation of the Harris-Todaro model, who point to a positive relationship. This paper shows that both strands of literature are special...

This paper examines the Turkish wage curve using individual data from the Household Labor Force Survey (HLFS) including 26 NUTS-2 regions over the period 2005 - 2008. When the local unemployment rate is treated as predetermined, there is evidence in favor of the wage curve only for younger and...

Regional labor markets are characterized by huge disparities. The literature on the wage curve argues that there exists a negative relationship between unemployment and wages. However, this literature cannot explain how disparities of these variables between regions endogenously arise. In...

Regional labor markets are characterized by huge disparities between unemployment rates. Models of the New Economic Geography explain how disparities between regional goods markets endogenously arise but usually assume full employment. This paper discusses regional unemployment disparities by...