Henry W. Herzog

Labor force mobility in the United States: migration, unemployment, and remigration.

This study examines the relationships between pre-and post-move unemployment and interstate migration of the United States labor force for the period 1965 to 1970. Multivariate analyses are conducted for several large occupation groups. The results indicate a strong link between unemployment and migration. Unemployment increases migration possibilities for each large occupation group considered. Substantial post-move unemployment exists, but there is a significant link between migration and such unemployment only for blue-collar workers who are repeat migrants.

Life on the Frontier: Migrant Information, Earnings and Past Mobility

This paper examines the extent to which information obtained from past geographic mobility affects both post-move job-search and earnings in subsequent migration [in the United States]. The study considers this linkage between past and present mobility by estimating earnings frontiers for various categories of interstate migrants partitioned by prior mobility history....[The] results demonstrate that migrant groups exhibiting high relative levels of human capital stock do not necessarily possess superior pre-move labor market information. It is also demonstrated that the incentive to acquire this pre-move information is tied to psychic cost and variation in this cost among migrant types. (EXCERPT)

Labor market institutions and the efficiency of interregional migration: A Cross-Nation Comparison

An important question for economists concerns the effectiveness, or efficiency, of interregional migration as a labor market adjustment mechanism. We have considered the many dimensions of this issue in Chapter 1. Hoover and Giarratani (1984) suggest that this question of efficiency can be addressed at three different levels of inquiry by: (1) examining ratios of net to total gross flows of migrants between pairs of regions; (2) determining whether migrants benefit from their actions in terms of enhanced employment and/or income opportunity; and (3) assessing the contribution of interregional migration to aggregate output or, more broadly, to social welfare. Although a perfectly homogeneous labor force is required for (1) to assume economic meaning, and (3) is often considered unopera-tional due to the difficulty of measuring migration externalities, a number of recent studies have addressed the question of migration efficiency (directly and indirectly) along the lines of (2) above.1

Force Reduction, Base Closure, and the Indirect Effects of Military Installations on Local Employment Growth

Abstract This study examines the indirect effects of military installations on county–level private employment, and specifically the special cases of base closure under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) proceedings of 1988, 1991, 1993, and 1995. Local employment impacts are considered within a partial adjustment construct of the changes model, a specification that facilitates the decomposition of defense personnel changes into their positive, negative, and BRAC–related components. The latter two components are subsequently examined for asymmetric effects attributable to ordinary force drawdown on the one hand, and base closure on the other. Also considered are the specific effects of direct federal assistance as well as facilities conversion and reutilization within BRAC communities.

Migration and labor market adjustment

This volume presents papers from the International Conference on Migration and Labor Market Adjustment held at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville October 15-17 1987. The papers are organized under chapter headings on migration as a reflection of interregional labor market adjustment; the relationships among unemployment migration and job matching; aspects of regional labor market dynamics migration and economic efficiency; the human investment approach to labor market mobility and personal status; and conceptual and methodological issues. The geographical focus is on the United States and the market-economy countries of Europe.

Economic efficiency and equity in water quality control: Effluent taxes and information requirements

Abstract Water quality standards for any river system can be achieved under numerous management programs or assignment patterns for waste treatment responsibility. This study examines three effluent charge (tax) programs along with a management program based on equal percentage treatment. Each program is developed within the general framework of a water quality management model and is designed to minimize the total real resource cost of waste treatment subject to program constraints (information availability) and water quality standards. An assessment of the relative efficiency and equity of these programs is made within a water quality management simulation of the Patuxent River in Maryland.

Employment Uncertainty and the Incidence of Job Loss in Transition Economies: The Case for Central Europe

A shared concern among Central European countries is the significant social cost imposed by market-oriented reforms. Although a growing body of literature has addressed the incidence of such reforms on unemployment distribution and duration, little is known of the actual transitions of workers from employment to unemployment and specifically the dynamics of transition-induced job loss. This study examines such transitions in the Czech and Slovak Republics, Poland, and Slovenia within econometric models whereby voluntary and involuntary employment separations are jointly determined. In this regard, employment reductions triggered by demand-driven reforms are accommodated at the industry and the occupation level by redundancies as well as voluntary quits in anticipation of redundancy. In addition, employed workers within the models consider the “costs” of job loss (likelihood of long-term unemployment) while both shirking, and thus risking dismissal, and contemplating quitting. Estimates on personal characteristic variables in the involuntary and voluntary separation equations provide important new information on the incidence of job loss in Central European transition economies and specifically how such loss likely varies by gender, age, marital status, and completed education. Particular attention is devoted to gender differentials.

Plant Scale, Industry Agglomeration, and the Outlook for Regional Employment in Central European Economies

A common outcome among Central European transition economies is the significant variation in regional unemployment rates, a condition symptomatic of allocative inefficiency in the labor market. Several studies attribute such variation, at least in part, to large vertically integrated industrial complexes erected during the period of central planning, and in turn to subsequent employment adjustment that operates to the disadvantage of local workers during transition. In this study I provide a test of this hypothesis by examining the correlates of local employment change at the outset of reforms, and specifically adjustment triggered by extreme variation in local plant size and scale externalities.

High-Technology Location and Worker Mobility in the U.S.

In recent years, nearly all of the job creation in the U.S. manufacturing sector can be attributed to growth in high-technology industries.1 The magnitude of this “technological renaissance” has not only spurred competition among states and metropolitan areas for high-technology employment, but also rekindled academic interest in the spatial dimensions of innovation process. However, amid this interest in high technology firms and centers, technological competition, and ensuing local development issues, very little information has been developed to date on the specialized labor resources (for both production and research and development) that generate the observed geographic patterns of interest.

Local business cycle severity and induced labour mobility: the case of the construction workforce

The purpose of this study is to examine inter-state labour mobility within the construction industry, a sector of the local/national economy whose output (employment) is highly cyclically sensitive. Econometric estimates of the construction work-force migration decision indicate that such workers are responsive to economic conditions throughout local labour markets when considering geographic mobility. In this regard, workers respond to both static and dynamic measures of local well-being, and choose to move in the face of high local unemployement, slow growth, and high local cycle severity. In the latter respect, migration from metropolitan labour markets is significantly augmented (particularly among theunemployed) by the severity of local job loss attributable to national business cycle contractions, and stemmed somewhat by the rapidity of local job creation attributable to national expansions. The predominance of cycle-induced mobility within the construction work-force (vis-a-vis static local economi...