Job Search in Thick Markets: Evidence from Italy

Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano Development Studies Working Paper No. 198

36 Pages Posted: 26 Jul 2005

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: March 2005

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 individuals' search behavior; although men with thicker family networks search more intensively.

Keywords: Labour market transitions, search intensity, urbanization, industrial localization

JEL Classification: J64, R00, J60

Suggested Citation

Di Addario, Sabrina Lucia, Job Search in Thick Markets: Evidence from Italy (March 2005). Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano Development Studies Working Paper No. 198, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=760306 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.760306

Sabrina Lucia Di Addario (Contact Author)

Bank of Italy ( email )

Via 20 settembre, 97/e
00187 Rome, I - 00184
Italy
+39 06 4792 3458 (Phone)
+39 06 4792 5626 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/sabrinadiaddario/

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