eprintid: 1484
rev_number: 10
eprint_status: archive
userid: 6
dir: disk0/00/00/14/84
datestamp: 2013-02-20 09:41:55
lastmod: 2013-02-20 09:41:55
status_changed: 2013-02-20 09:41:55
type: conference_item
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Morescalchi, Andrea
creators_id: andrea.morescalchi@imtlucca.it
title: The Puzzle of Job Search and Housing Tenure: a Reconciliation of Theory and Empirical Evidence
ispublished: unpub
subjects: HB
subjects: HD
divisions: EIC
full_text_status: public
pres_type: paper
keywords: JEL Classification: J61, J64, R2. Keywords: Job Search, Housing Tenure, Oswald Effect.
abstract: This paper attempts to reconcile the empirical evidence with the argument in favour of a positive effect of homeownership on exit rates from unemployment, known as \Oswald's thesis". While the theory would suggest that
homeowners experience more difficulties than renters to exit unemployment due to lower residential mobility, the empirical literature has typically found lower unemployed duration for homeowners. Taking into account some of
the reasons for the falsification of the Oswald's thesis, we provide evidence which supports it. At first, in a theoretical model of endogenous job search we show that
homeowners' higher moving costs imply unambiguously lower search and lower job finding rates, even though an opposite effect works for jobs which do not require a move. Then, in the empirical analysis we make use of data drawn from the British Household Panel Survey to compare job search intensity measures by housing tenure. We find that, controlling for housing costs and for different residential statuses, non-employed outright owners have definitely a lower attachment to the labour market than renters, and that this effect is even more evident when we compare them to private renters.
date: 2011-11
date_type: published
pagerange: 1-41
event_title: XXV National Conference of Labour Economics
event_location: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano
event_dates: 15-16 September 2011
event_type: conference
refereed: TRUE
official_url: http://www.aiel.it/bacheca/milano/papers/Morescalchi.pdf
citation:   Morescalchi, Andrea  The Puzzle of Job Search and Housing Tenure: a Reconciliation of Theory and Empirical Evidence.  In: XXV National Conference of Labour Economics, 15-16 September 2011, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano pp. 1-41.      (Unpublished)   (2011)  
document_url: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/1484/1/Puzzle_of_Job_AIEL_2011_Morescalchi.pdf