revised version published as 'Spatial mobility and competition for jobs: Some theory and evidence for Western Germany' in: Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2006, 36 (6), 802 - 825
This paper investigates spatial correlation in the matching process of vacant jobs and job
seekers. The importance of the interactions of regional labor markets in West Germany is
highlighted in several dimensions. We test for spatial autocorrelation in regional hires,
unemployment and vacancy levels, we examine the patterns of new matches in regions,
identify clusters of regions of particularly intense interregional matching, and examine the
effects of German re-unification. After setting-out a simple model of endogenous regional
mobility and endogenous on-the-job search, we analyze the composition of new hires with
respect to regional origin and previous employment status, the determinants of this
composition, and the interaction of these characteristics. The results shed new light on the
puzzle raised in the literature, which finds a large variation in unemployment rates, combined
with little inter-regional migration. We find evidence in favour of labor market determined
migration and against the ’internal migration puzzle’ found for other European countries and
partly for the United States.
We use cookies to provide you with an optimal website experience. This includes cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site as well as cookies that are only used for anonymous statistical purposes, for comfort settings or to display personalized content. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to allow. Please note that based on your settings, you may not be able to use all of the site's functions.
Cookie settings
These necessary cookies are required to activate the core functionality of the website. An opt-out from these technologies is not available.
In order to further improve our offer and our website, we collect anonymous data for statistics and analyses. With the help of these cookies we can, for example, determine the number of visitors and the effect of certain pages on our website and optimize our content.