IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cen/wpaper/26-22.html

The Role of Homophily in Response to Labor Market Opportunities: Differences Across Race and Ethnicity

Author

Listed:
  • Kalee E. Burns
  • Julie L. Hotchkiss

Abstract

This paper investigates the role that homophily might play in explaining racial/ethnic disparities in the labor market. We find that Black and Hispanic workers are less responsive than White workers to changes in job opportunities, but responsiveness increases when those opportunities present themselves in locations with a higher share own-race population. The analysis makes use of restricted American Community Survey data, accessible through the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers, allowing us to include commuting zones that may otherwise not be identified because of suppressed location information in the public data

Suggested Citation

  • Kalee E. Burns & Julie L. Hotchkiss, 2026. "The Role of Homophily in Response to Labor Market Opportunities: Differences Across Race and Ethnicity," Working Papers 26-22, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:26-22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/library/working-papers/2026/adrm/ces/CES-WP-26-22.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2026
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Amior & Alan Manning, 2018. "The Persistence of Local Joblessness," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(7), pages 1942-1970, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sarah Kiesl-Reiter & Melanie Lührmann & Jonathan Shaw & Joachim Winter, 2025. "The formation of subjective house price expectations: the role of perceptions and local economic conditions," IFS Working Papers W25/58, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    2. Basu, Arnab K. & Chau, Nancy H. & Lin, Gary C., 2026. "On migration gravity with status quo bias and job search frictions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    3. Stuhler, Jan & Jaeger, David & Ruist, Joakim, 2018. "Shift-Share Instruments and the Impact of Immigration," CEPR Discussion Papers 12701, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    4. Katheryn N. Russ & Jay C. Shambaugh & Sanjay R. Singh, 2024. "Currency Areas, Labor Markets, and Regional Cyclical Sensitivity," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 72(1), pages 152-195, March.
    5. Bastian, Jacob E. & Black, Dan A., 2024. "Relaxing financial constraints with tax credits and migrating out of rural and distressed America," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    6. Ioana Marinescu & Roland Rathelot, 2018. "Mismatch Unemployment and the Geography of Job Search," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 42-70, July.
    7. Michael Amior, 2015. "Why are Higher Skilled Workers More Mobile Geographically? The Role of the Job Surplus," CEP Discussion Papers dp1338, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    8. David Autor & David Dorn & Gordon Hanson, 2021. "On the Persistence of the China Shock," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 52(2 (Fall)), pages 381-476.
    9. Verdugo, Gregory & Allègre, Guillaume, 2020. "Labour force participation and job polarization: Evidence from Europe during the Great Recession," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    10. Yagan, Danny, 2016. "The Enduring Employment Impact of Your Great Recession Location," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt12d0w9bs, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    11. Gregory Howard, 2017. "The Migration Accelerator: Labor Mobility, Housing, and Aggregate Demand," 2017 Meeting Papers 563, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    12. David Autor & David Dorn & Gordon Hanson & Maggie R. Jones & Bradley Setzler, 2024. "Places versus People: The Ins and Outs of Labor Market Adjustment to Globalization," Working Papers 24-78, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    13. Benny Kleinman & Ernest Liu & Stephen J. Redding, 2023. "Dynamic Spatial General Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(2), pages 385-424, March.
    14. Redding, Stephen, 2020. "Trade and Geography," CEPR Discussion Papers 15268, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    15. Andreas Diemer, 2026. "Spatial Diffusion of Local Economic Shocks in Social Networks: Evidence from the US Fracking Boom," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(1), pages 271-308.
    16. Miriam Fritzsche, 2024. "De-industrialization, local joblessness and the male-female employment gap," Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers 0040, Berlin School of Economics.
    17. Tobias Theys & Nick Deschacht & Stef Adriaenssens & Dieter Verhaest, 2019. "The evolution of inter-regional spatial mismatch in the USA: The role of skills and spatial structure," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(13), pages 2654-2669, October.
    18. Bhattarai, Saroj & Schwartzman, Felipe & Yang, Choongryul, 2021. "Local scars of the US housing crisis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 40-57.
    19. Emanuele Ciani & Francesco David & Guido de Blasio, 2017. "Local labour market heterogeneity in Italy: estimates and simulations using responses to labour demand shocks," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1112, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    20. Arntz, Melanie & Ivanov, Boris & Pohlan, Laura, 2022. "Regional Structural Change and the Effects of Job Loss," IZA Discussion Papers 15313, IZA Network @ LISER.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • R22 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Other Demand
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:26-22. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dawn Anderson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.