Spatial aspects of labour supply in the UK

This thesis sets out to examine the main sources of variation in labour supply, and the interaction with demand conditions. The spatial dimension is taken to be of intrinsic interest (in addition to its importance in disaggregating the national picture), reflecting not only transportation costs to movement, but also problems of information diffusion . Space is therefore seen as an important dimension to issues of labour market disequilibrium and segmentation, conditioning the opportunity sets of labour market participants, and affecting outcomes. The first section of the thesis examines the determination of male migration patterns, both at the individual and aggregate levels, along lines suggested by search theory. Two main sets of conclusions emerged. Firstly, important differences were found in the behaviour of migrants across search fields, corresponding roughly with housing and employment related motivations for moving. Secondly, some support was found for the notion suggested by search theory that the spatial pattern of flows of opportunities (such as employment growth or house-building rates) were likely to be important in determining migration flows. As such, it was suggested that job creation schemes induce substantial migration adjustments, moderating the impact on local unemployment. The second portion of the thesis investigates spatial variations in married female labour force participation rates. Initially, a time series analysis was performed at the regional level, which attributed much of the regional convergence in participation to convergence in unemployment and wages. A simultaneous labour market model for the London region was then constructed. This analysis suggested that whereas male labour supply adjusted to changes in local demand conditions via induced migration or commuting, women (particularly married women) appeared to be relatively constrained in this respect, placing much of the burden of adjustment on participation rates instead

Migrant Inertia, Accessibility and Local Unemployment.

A labor-market model is constructed in which migration may exhibit distance deterrence and cumulative inertia. (Migration probabilities fall with distance and length of residence, respectively.) The combination of these two processes yields higher equilibrium unemployment rates in remote areas. Fewer out-migration opportunities in remote areas generate longer residence durations that become self-perpetuating (via cumulative inertia). Such areas accumulate net in-migrants until the local unemployment rate rises sufficiently to balance inflows and outflows. In equilibrium, local unemployment rates compensate for (endogenous) variations in residence duration. Some evidence is presented for Britain that supports the prediction of higher unemployment in remote areas. Copyright 1995 by The London School of Economics and Political Science.

Entry Effects under Classical Oligopoly

Sets out a version of a standard conjectural-variations oligopoly model, and investigates the properties of that model with respect to the effects of entry. Shows within this context that entry unambiguously reduces incumbents' margins and output, while raising industry output. Also shows that higher degrees of collusion in an industry may induce entry at increased levels of output.Industry, Models, Oligopoly

Evolution and sub-optimal behaviour

The apparently sub-optimal behaviour of economic agents in games against nature can be seen as a natural outcome of evolutionary processes. This paper extends previous work on the evolutionary stability of sub-optimal adaptations by examining how stability is affected by the introduction of multiple traits and assortative mating. It is shown that increasing the number of traits tends to increase the scope for stable second best adaptations whilst assortative mating reduces it. Various economic applications are discussed.Suboptimal behaviour , Evolutionary stability , Sexual inheritance , Assortative mating , Population dynamics

The Impact of Migration on Wages: Empirical Evidence from French Youth

This paper deals with the impact of migration on wages. We introduce a spatial dimension into the job search framework, so that the agent faces neither the same job offer distribution nor the same search costs when looking for a job inside his local labor market. This is in comparison to the agent searching outside his local labor market, where migration costs are a factor. We estimate wage equations in which we introduce the decision to migrate as a binary choice, and later as a polychotomic choice (stayer/mover from provinces to Paris/mover from provinces to provinces). We find no selection effect for people with low levels of education, and a positive selection effect for highly educated migrants. When we distinguish the migration destination for highly educated from provinces, we find a hierarchical effect, that is, the selection effect is higher for men who migrate to Paris than for those who migrate to other provinces. Copyright Blackwell Publishing, Inc. 2004