Geographic Mobility of Youth and Spatial Gaps in Local College and Labor Market Opportunities
中文摘要
本文考察童年居住地与成年经济结果之间因果联系背后的机制。我构建并估计了一个个体关于是否上大学、在何处上大学以及在何处工作的动态选择模型,模型考虑了家乡偏好、空间搜寻摩擦与迁移成本。模型估计结果表明,源于成年期流动性不完全的大学与劳动力市场机会的空间差距,在解释来自不同县、家庭背景相似的儿童为何在成年后取得不同经济结果方面,比童年社区质量的差异发挥更重要的作用。
Abstract
This paper investigates the mechanisms underlying the causal link between childhood location and adulthood economic outcomes. I develop and estimate a dynamic model of individual choice of whether and where to attend college and where to work, accounting for home preferences, spatial search frictions, and moving costs. The estimated model suggests that spatial gaps in college and labor market opportunities, which stem from imperfect mobility in adulthood, play a more important role than variation in childhood neighborhood quality in explaining why children from different counties with similar family backgrounds achieve different economic outcomes in adulthood.