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Job Search in Thick Markets: Evidence from Italy

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  • Sabrina Di Addario

Abstract

I analyze empirically the effects of both urban and industrial agglomeration on men`s and women`s search behavior and on the efficiency of matching. The analysis is based on the Italian Labor Force Survey micro-data, which covers 520 randomly drawn Local Labor Market Areas (66 per cent of the total) over the four quarters of 2002. I compute transition probabilities from non-employment to employment by jointly estimating the probability of searching and the probability of finding a job conditional on having searched, and I test whether these are affected by urbanization, industry localization, labor pooling and family network quality. In general, the main results indicate that urbanization and labor pooling raise job seekers` chances of finding employment (conditional on having searched), while industry localization and family network quality increase only men`s. Moreover, neither urban nor industrial agglomeration affect non-employed indvidiual`s search behavior; although men with thicker family networks search more intensively.

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  • Sabrina Di Addario, 2005. "Job Search in Thick Markets: Evidence from Italy," Economics Series Working Papers 235, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:235
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    Cited by:

    1. Sabrina Di Addario, 2005. "Job Search in Thick Markets: Evidence from Italy," Economics Series Working Papers 235, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    2. Sabrina Di Addario & Eleonora Patacchini, 2006. "Is there an urban wage premium in Italy?," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 570, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    3. Di Addario, Sabrina & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2008. "Wages and the City. Evidence from Italy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 1040-1061, October.
    4. Sabrina Di Addario & Eleonora Patacchini & University of Rome La Sapienza, 2005. "Wages and the City. The Italian case," Economics Series Working Papers 243, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour Market Transitions; Search Intensity; Urbanization; Industrial Localization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General

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