Local social capital and geographical mobility: some empirics and a conjecture on the nature of European unemployment

"European labor markets are characterized by the low geographical mobility of workers. The absence of mobility is a factor behind high unemployment when jobless people prefer to remain in their home region rather than to go prospecting in more dynamic areas. In this paper, we attempt to underst...

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Main Authors: David, Quentin, Janiak, Alexandre, Wasmer, Etienne
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Bonn 2008
IZA
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19291186124910193689-Local-social-capital-and-geogr.htm
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author David, Quentin
Janiak, Alexandre
Wasmer, Etienne
author_facet David, Quentin
Janiak, Alexandre
Wasmer, Etienne
collection Library items
description "European labor markets are characterized by the low geographical mobility of workers. The absence of mobility is a factor behind high unemployment when jobless people prefer to remain in their home region rather than to go prospecting in more dynamic areas. In this paper, we attempt to understand the determinants of mobility by introducing the concept of local social capital. Using data from a European household panel (ECHP), we provide various measures of social capital, which appears to be a strong factor of immobility. It is also a fairly large factor of unemployment when social capital is clearly local, while other types of social capital are found to have a positive effect on employability. We also find evidence of the reciprocal causality, that is, individuals born in another region have accumulated less local social capital. Finally, observing that individuals in the South of Europe appear to accumulate more local social capital, while in Northern Europe they tend to invest in more general types of social capital, we argue that part of the European unemployment puzzle can be better understood thanks to the concept of local social capital. "
format TEXT
geographic EU countries
id 19291186124910193689_ef04ea7cbd144b2faea15fdfcbb48208
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19291186124910193689_ef04ea7cbd144b2faea15fdfcbb48208
is_hierarchy_title Local social capital and geographical mobility: some empirics and a conjecture on the nature of European unemployment
language English
physical 12 p.
Digital
publishDate 2008
publisher Bonn
IZA
spellingShingle David, Quentin
Janiak, Alexandre
Wasmer, Etienne
labour mobility
local level
statistics
unemployment
social capital
Local social capital and geographical mobility: some empirics and a conjecture on the nature of European unemployment
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=117315793559
title Local social capital and geographical mobility: some empirics and a conjecture on the nature of European unemployment
topic labour mobility
local level
statistics
unemployment
social capital
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19291186124910193689-Local-social-capital-and-geogr.htm