TY - JOUR
T1 - Local social capital and geographical mobility
AU - David, Quentin
AU - Janiak, Alexandre
AU - Wasmer, Etienne
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank the three anonymous referees, William Strange (the Editor), Yann Algan, Fabrice Collard, Catherine Dehon, Robert Ellickson, Patrick Fève, Pietro Garibaldi, Marjorie Gassner, Jennifer Hunt, Franck Portier, Robert Putnam, Vincenzo Verardi, Yves Zenou and various seminars participants for their helpful comments and suggestions, particularly the Paris School of Economics, University of Autonoma Barcelona, IUI in Stockholm, Toulouse School of Economics, ECARES, Warwick and the European Symposium in Labor Economics (CEPR-IZA). Alexandre Janiak thanks Fondecyt for financial support (Project No. 11080251). Etienne Wasmer thanks the ANR (projet Blanc Discri-Segre) for financial support.
PY - 2010/9
Y1 - 2010/9
N2 - In the North of Europe, club membership is higher than in the South, but the frequency of contacts with friends, relatives and neighbors is lower. We link this fact to another one: the low geographical mobility rates in the South of Europe relative to the North.To interpret these facts, we build a model of local social capital and mobility. Investing in local ties is rational when workers do not expect to move to another region. We find that observationally close individuals may take different paths characterized by high local social capital, low mobility and high unemployment, vs. low social capital, high propensity to move and higher employment probability. Employment protection reinforces the accumulation of local social capital and thus reduces mobility.European data supports the theory: within a country and at the individual level, more social capital is associated with lower mobility.
AB - In the North of Europe, club membership is higher than in the South, but the frequency of contacts with friends, relatives and neighbors is lower. We link this fact to another one: the low geographical mobility rates in the South of Europe relative to the North.To interpret these facts, we build a model of local social capital and mobility. Investing in local ties is rational when workers do not expect to move to another region. We find that observationally close individuals may take different paths characterized by high local social capital, low mobility and high unemployment, vs. low social capital, high propensity to move and higher employment probability. Employment protection reinforces the accumulation of local social capital and thus reduces mobility.European data supports the theory: within a country and at the individual level, more social capital is associated with lower mobility.
KW - European unemployment
KW - Geographical mobility
KW - Social capital
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jue.2010.04.003
DO - 10.1016/j.jue.2010.04.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77954383846
VL - 68
SP - 191
EP - 204
JO - Journal of Urban Economics
JF - Journal of Urban Economics
SN - 0094-1190
IS - 2
ER -