Research

2024

1. Churning in Cities: The Volatility Advantages of Large Labor Markets

   Maddalena Conte, Isabelle Mejean, Tomasz Michalski , and Benoit Schmutz

   CEPR Discussion Paper, 2024

   (Submitted)

   Abstract Link

   Firms’ labor demand is more volatile in larger cities. We propose and test a novel explanation for this finding. Faster hiring conditions attract productive firms with more volatile activity to denser locations where they can swiftly downsize or expand. We estimate a model of firm location choice using French data and show that (i) firm volatility is almost as predictive of location choice as productivity; (ii) both dimensions reinforce each other. This mechanism reduces the productivity–density gradient among volatile firms. Imperfectly correlated firm-level shocks, combined with higher operating costs induced by density, generate matching economies.

2. Moving to opportunity? Networks, information and skill-biased migration

   Maddalena Conte

   2024

   (Draft available upon request)

   Abstract

   This paper studies the role of information on workers’ regional migration. I exploit a strategy that isolates changes in workers’ information on migration opportunities based on their network of former coworkers. Using matched employer-employee data from France, I find that increases in information on migration opportunities lead to higher labour market transitions to other cities, but this effect is significantly weaker for low-skilled workers, who also tend to be less mobile and have more spatially concentrated networks. I then estimate a structural model of migration to quantify the role of information frictions on the skill mobility gap. Results suggest that differences in private information on migration opportunities contribute more to the migration gap between low- and high-skilled workers than differences in local wages and in migration costs.

3. Affordable housing and the labour market

   Maddalena Conte, Ismir Mulalic , and Jos van Ommeren

   2024

   Abstract

   This paper investigates long-run labour market outcomes of affordable housing in a quasi-natural experimental setting for the city of Copenhagen. The empirical setup enables us to compare two key affordable housing policies: home purchase assistance and rent-controlled housing, both directed towards poor households. We compare the impact of these policies on several margins of labour supply. We find that home purchase assistance increases labour market participation, at marginally lower wages, for several years after treatment, both at the intensive and extensive margin. At the same time, it encourages early retirement, so it only slightly increases labour supply over an individual’s lifetime, while making moving residence locally more likely. Home purchase assistance thus seem to be more effective than rental subsidies in promoting labour market attachment.

2023

1. The CEPII Gravity database

   Maddalena Conte, Pierre Cotterlaz , and Thierry Mayer

   CEPII Working Paper, 2023

   Link