The impact of local taxes on plants location decision

Determinants of plant locations are known to be multiple. Locations of partners and competitors are crucial, as well as the territory's local characteristics. Some local characteristics can be natural. Others, like local taxes, reflect local agents' decisions. To what extent are local taxes taken into consideration during the plant location process? We build a Poisson model to explain the number of firm creations observed in a given municipality in a given year. Correlations and first results tend to show that there exists some unobserved attractivity factors correlated with the level of local taxes. To deal with endogeneity, we present an approach close to the Regression Discontinuity Design. Finally, we find that, everything else being equal, higher local taxes actually deter firms from investing in a given zone.local attractivity, local taxes, plant location decisions, regression discontinuity design, Poisson regression, spatial economics

Who is confronted to insecure labor market histories? Some evidence based on the French labor market transition

This paper presents some empirical evidence on the French labor market focusing on transitions between stable jobs, temporary work, unemployment and non-participation. The model used is based on a Markov chain mixture which allows to distinguish labor market histories that are confined to contingent work and non-employment from the non-confined ones. This enables us to identify, quantify and characterize (conditional on observable characteristics) the workers who never accede to stable jobs and remain stuck to temporary jobs and non-employment spells. We consider quarterly labor market transitions, observed from 2003 to 2006 in the Labor Force survey (LFS). We find that on the whole, about 5% of the working age population experience confined transition dynamics: they cannot access to stable jobs. Confined workers are less educated and are more likely to live in distressed areas.labor market mobility, labor market transitions, mover-stayer models, Markov chains

Ethnic differentials on the labor market in the presence of asymmetric spatial sorting : set identification and estimation

This paper aims to isolate the ethnic gap on the labor market that can be attributed to ethnicity and not to differences in individual characteristics or residential location. Controlling for residential location is important as ethnic minorities often live in distressed neighborhoods. It is also challenging because spatial sorting is likely to differ across ethnicities because of labor- or housing-market discrimination. This paper shows that controlling for neighborhoods and observed individual characteristics fails to provide a consistent estimate for the component of the gap accountable to ethnicity only. However, under some assumptions, the quantity of interest is set identified even when heterogeneous sorting patterns across ethnicities are allowed for and the set estimate can still be informative. A two-step estimation method is presented and applied to explain the ethnic employment differential in France, between French individuals of North African ancestry and those with non-immigrant parents. Most of the gap is not due to differences in residential location or individual characteristics, but rather to ethnicity itself

Social Housing and Location Choices of Immigrants in France

Our study examines the empirical links between social housing policy and location choices of immigrants in France. More specifically, we characterize the main individual and contextual determinants of the probability for immigrants to live in a HLM (habitations à loyer modéré, dwelling with a moderate rent), which is the main public housing policy in France. For that purpose, we use individual information coming from large (one-fourth) extracts of the French population censuses conducted by INSEE (Paris) in 1982, 1990, and 1999. Our estimates show that, in general, migrants live more frequently in social housing than French natives, other observables being equal. In particular, this probability is higher for migrants from Turkey, Morocco, Southeast Asia, Algeria, Tunisia and Sub-Saharan Africa (in descending order). We find also that migrants of all origins live less often in a HLM when the city has plenty of social housing and when the fraction of natives is high.social magnets, migration, social housing

Measuring segregation on small units : a partial identification analysis

We consider the issue of measuring segregation in a population of small units, considering establishments in our application. Each establishment may have a different probability to hire an individual from the minority group. We define segregation indices as inequality indices on these unobserved, random probabilities. Because these probabilities are measured with error by proportions, standard estimators are inconsistent. We model this problem as a nonparametric binomial mixture. Under this testable assumption and conditions satisfied by standard segregation indices, such indices are partially identified and sharp bounds can be easily obtained by an optimization over a low dimensional space. We also develop bootstrap confidence intervals and a test of the binomial mixture model. Finally, we apply our method to measure the segregation of foreigners in small French firms

Mismatch unemployment and the geography of job search

Could we significantly reduce U.S. unemployment by helping job seekers move closer to jobs? Using data from the leading employment board CareerBuilder.com, we show that, indeed, workers dislike applying to distant jobs: job seekers are 35% less likely to apply to a job 10 miles away from their ZIP code of residence. However, because job seekers are close enough to vacancies on average, this distaste for distance is fairly inconsequential: our search and matching model predicts that relocating job seekers to minimize unemployment would decrease unemployment by only 5.3%. Geographic mismatch is thus a minor driver of aggregate unemployment

Measuring the Effect of the Local Ethnic Composition on Natives’ and Immigrants’ Geographic Mobility in France. Evidence from Panel Data (1982-1999)

This article provides empirical results on the patterns of native and immigrant geographic mobility in France. Using longitudinal data, we measure mobility from one French municipality (commune) to another over time and estimate the effect of the initial municipality’s ethnic composition on the probability of moving out. Relying on a unique methodology, we try to correct for biases related to selection based on geographical and individual unobservables. Our findings tend to discredit the hypothesis of the “white flight” central pattern in residential mobility dynamics in France. Some evidence nevertheless denotes ethnic avoidance mechanisms in natives’ relocating. We also find a strong negative and highly robust effect of co-ethnics’ presence on immigrant geographic mobility. The final discussion explores some avenues to interpret these findings

Local ethnic composition and natives' and immigrants' geographic mobility in France, 1982-1999

This article provides empirical results on patterns of native and immigrant geographic mobility in France. Using longitudinal data, we measure mobility from one French municipality (commune) to another over time and estimate the effect of the initial municipality’s ethnic composition on the probability of moving out. These data allow us to use panel techniques to correct for biases related to selection based on geographic and individual unobservables. Our findings tend to discredit the hypothesis of a “white flight” pattern in residential mobility dynamics in France. Some evidence does show ethnic avoidance mechanisms in natives’ relocating. We also find a strong negative and highly robust effect of co-ethnics’ presence on immigrants’ geographic mobility