Jeffrey J. Yankow

Do Neighborhoods Affect Hours Worked? Evidence from Longitudinal Data

Using a confidential version of the NLSY79, we estimate large effects of neighborhood social characteristics and job proximity on labor market activity. A variety of neighborhood social characteristics are associated with less market work. Social characteristics have nonlinear effects, with the greatest impact in the worst neighborhoods. Social characteristics are also more important for less‐educated workers. Exploiting the panel aspects of our data, we find that estimates that do not account for neighborhood selection on the basis of time‐invariant and time‐varying unobserved individual characteristics substantially overstate the social effects of neighborhoods but understate the effects of job access.

Migration, Job Change, and Wage Growth: A New Perspective on the Pecuniary Return to Geographic Mobility

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, this study examines the pattern of early career job mobility and migration in a sample of young male workers. Primary interest lies in the between-job wage change accompanying job transitions as well as the extended time-profile of migrant earnings. When the sample of job transitions is partitioned by education level, contemporaneous returns are found only for workers with twelve or less years of completed schooling. In contrast, highly educated workers demonstrate significant extended returns to migration with the bulk of pecuniary rewards accruing with a lag of nearly two years. Copyright Blackwell Publishing, Inc. 2003