The role of residential location on labour-market outcomes : the urban agglomerations of Lyon and Brussels
(2006)
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- This thesis addresses the issue of the relationship between urban spatial structure and individual outcomes by investigating the possible impacts of the characteristics of residential locations on individual labour-market outcomes. Indeed, a recent body of research suggests that the spatial organization of cities might adversely affect the labour-market outcomes of disadvantaged individuals by distancing them from job opportunities and by isolating them in areas of concentrated poverty, which may generate peer effects, lack of role models, poor quality social networks as well as territorial discrimination. These theories have been developed and tested empirically in many American Metropolitan Areas, but only a few works have focused on European cities. Moreover, past studies have highlighted important methodological concerns that are inherent to the estimation of residential location effects. Of paramount importance is the endogeneity bias that results from the simultaneity between socio-economic outcomes and residential locations. While most studies are aware of the existence of this problem, few try to solve it adequately. The main objectives of this thesis are thus (i) to investigate the potential effect of residential location on unemployment in two European cities, Brussels (Belgium) and Lyon (France), and (ii) to study the impact of the chosen methodology on results of empirical analyses. In this respect, this thesis provides two methodological innovations. First, it builds a sensitivity analysis aiming at evaluating the impact of unobserved characteristics on estimated residential location effects. Second, it investigates the possibilities offered by simultaneous-equation models to solve the endogeneity of residential choices. Results confirm the hypothesis that individual unemployment propensities are affected by the social composition of residential neighbourhoods. This may have important implications for the formulation of social policies.
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Dujardin, C. (2006). The role of residential location on labour-market outcomes : the urban agglomerations of Lyon and Brussels. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/124142