House lock and structural unemployment

Arbeitspapier

A recent decline in geographic mobility in the United States may have been caused in part by falling house prices, through the lock in effects of financial constraints faced by households whose housing debt exceeds the market value of their home. I analyze the relationship between such house lock and the elevated levels and persistence of unemployment during the recent recession and its aftermath, using data that covers the period through the end of 2011. Because house lock will extend job search in the local labor market for homeowners whose home value has declined, I focus on differences in unemployment duration between homeowners and renters across geographic areas differentiated by the severity of the decline in home prices. The empirical analyses rely on microdata from the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) files and an econometric method that enables the estimation of individual and aggregate covariate effects on completed unemployment durations in synthetic cohort (pseudo-panel) data. The estimates indicate the absence of a meaningful house lock effect on unemployment duration.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 7002

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Housing Supply and Markets
• Thema: unemployment ; house prices ; mobility ; Strukturelle Arbeitslosigkeit ; Wohneigentum ; Regionale Arbeitsmobilität ; Arbeitslosigkeit ; Dauer ; Wirtschaftskrise ; USA

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Valletta, Robert G.
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (wo): Bonn
• (wann): 2012

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/67169
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:41 MEZ