Labor Reallocation over the Business Cycle: New Evidence from Internal Migration

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Saks, Raven E.; Wozniak, Abigail
• 署名单位: Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve System Board of Governors; University of Notre Dame; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/660772
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 697-739
• 关键词: market; unemployment; mobility; welfare; wages; Heterogeneity; fluctuations; cyclicality; benefits; return

摘要

This article establishes the cyclical properties of a novel measure of worker reallocation: long-distance migration rates within the United States. Combining evidence from a number of data sets spanning the entire postwar era, we find that internal migration within the United States is procyclical. This result cannot be explained by cyclical variation in relative local economic conditions, suggesting that the net benefit of moving rises during booms. Migration is most procyclical for younger labor-force participants. Therefore, cyclical fluctuations in the net benefit of moving appear to be related to conditions in the labor market and the spatial reallocation of labor.