The Impact of Job Opportunities, Housing Costs, and Mobility Decisions on the Re-employment Experiences of Displaced Workers

Abstract

We create a location-specific longitudinal data set to examine employment outcomes for displaced workers. Our motivation stems from previous research having not considered the joint choice of non-employment duration and metropolitan labor market. We estimate a model of jobless duration with competing risks of exiting to a stable job in the same or competing MSAs and find that the benefits (job opportunities) and costs (housing) in both home and competing MSAs have substantial effects on duration/location outcomes. We then estimate an earnings model following workers post-displacement, finding important heterogeneity in post-mass layoff earnings losses across labor market conditions and industries.