Urban unemployment, agglomeration and transportation policies

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Zenou, Y
• 署名单位: Institut Polytechnique de Paris; Ecole des Ponts ParisTech; Le Mans Universite
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(99)00083-3
• 发表日期: 2000
• 页码: 97-133
• 关键词: efficiency wages; spatial mismatch; endogeneous location of workers and firms; urban unemployment; subsidizing commuting costs

摘要

We study the role of unemployment in the context of the endogeneous formation of a monocentric city in which firms set efficiency wages to deter shirking. We first show that, in equilibrium, the employed locate at the vicinity of the city-center, the unemployed reside at the city-edge and firms set up in the city-center. We then show that there is a 'spatial mismatch' between location and jobs because the further away from jobs the unemployed, the larger the level of unemployment, Finally, we derive some policy implications. We show that a policy that improves the city transportation network (by subsidizing the commuting costs of all workers) reduces urban unemployment, increases utilities of all workers but raises inequality whereas a policy that supports the transportation of the unemployed only (by subsidizing their commuting costs) increases urban unemployment, does not always raise workers' utilities but reduces inequality. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.