Amenities, Jobs, and Urban Form
Paper Session
Friday, Jan. 7, 2022 3:45 PM - 5:45 PM (EST)
- Chair: Rachel Meltzer, Harvard University
The Geography of Worker Adaptation to Unanticipated Job Losses
Abstract
This paper addresses the 21st century worker adaptation to a changing economy, using near-universal quarterly matched employee-employer microdata from the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD). Our contributions include specific consideration of impacts of geography - how place shapes outcomes for dislocated workers. To provide results relevant to the current COVID pandemic, we begin with an examination of the Great Recession. We focus on how a major disruption (with a large number of mass layoffs) affects future employment and earnings for displaced workers. To accomplish this, we follow several million displaced workers over time. We focus on the heterogeneous impacts of involuntary job loss by industry, education level, race, gender, location, and labor market history on the ability of workers to become re-employed and earn similar wages. We carry out an extensive study of the geography of dislocated worker adaptation, including emphasis on the effects on the mobility decision of relative job opportunities and housing costs. We also place substantive emphasis on job loss among less-educated workers, given the trend in secular loss of opportunities for these workers.Measuring the Value of Urban Consumption Amenities: A Time-Use Approach
Abstract
Assessing the value of consumption amenities is faced with two challenges. First, because the value of local consumption amenities, such as restaurants, often extends to residents living beyond the immediate vicinity of the amenities, researchers must account for how the amenity benefits diffuse through space. Second, to evaluate how each type of amenity affects each location's overall amenity value, researchers must identify residents' preferences for each of the amenity types. I present a model of amenity choice that micro-founds spatial diffusion and amenity preferences. The model empirically links these features to visiting patterns, which are observable in the time-use data. I demonstrate that correctly accounting for spatial diffusion is important for accurately measuring consumption amenities' role in welfare inequality.Quiet Restaurants near Political Power Centers: The Spatial Effect of the Anti-Corruption Campaign in a Consumer City
Abstract
China's 2012 "Eight-point Regulation" imposed harsh austerity measures on the spending of government officials. The effect of the policy on local economic activity remains an open question. Using data from a large online retail store review platform, we take a spatial difference-in-differences approach to investigate the impact of the corruption crackdown on extravagant restaurant spending in Beijing. Store-level regressions document a substantial adverse effect on the consumption at affected restaurants (i.e., those close to power centers) following the regulation. We find a stronger negative impact for the restaurants located in government-designated hotels, those in proximity to the power centers with higher political accountability, and weekdays. The effect is mainly concentrated in the upscale restaurants associated with a higher level of prior extravagance but we also show substantial negative externalities to the lower-end restaurants in the vicinity of power centers. Evidence from a nationally representative household survey suggests that the effect is mainly driven by the reduced demand of government employees following the crackdown. Taken together, the anti-corruption campaign impeded the corruption-related extravagant restaurant spending and shifted the within-city spatial distribution of restaurant consumption towards a more market-based one.Discussant(s)
Jacob Allen Krimmel
,
Federal Reserve Board
Michel Grosz
,
Federal Trade Commission
Milena Almagro
,
University of Chicago
Jenny Schuetz
,
Brookings Institution
JEL Classifications
- R3 - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location