Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Residential Segregation and Neighbor-Based Informal Hiring

经济学博士论文研究：居住隔离和基于邻居的非正式雇佣

• 批准号: 2116389
• 负责人: Miguel Urquiola
• 金额: $ 1.79万
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-15 至 2023-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2116389&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Economics; Residential

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Place-based job policies, such as informal neighborhood job search, are common tools to promote local job growth and reduce regional economic inequality. It is however not clear what makes a neighborhood good for job search. This research project will study one such mechanism---the use of neighbor networks in job search. It explores which type of neighborhood---segregated or integrated, by race and by education---is more conducive to a successful job search. Disentangling the neighborhood effects on job search is difficult partly because people self-select into neighborhoods. The researchers use a policy experiment on refugee that were randomly assigned to neighborhoods throughout the country to overcome the self-selection problem. The project can help shed light on how local social connections can be harnessed for effective resettlement and faster integration of these special immigrants into the labor market at the destination. Second, in answering this question, this research project will be a step towards understanding the relationship between neighborhood diversity and prosperity. The results of this research can provide guidance on improving the functioning of labor markets, especially for those in segregated neighborhoods. The results could therefore help guide policies to reduce unemployment in low income segregated neighborhoods.Identifying neighborhood effects in general is challenging because of residential sorting. Different individuals may choose to live in different places for reasons unobservable to the econometrician. To overcome this selection issue and obtain causality, the project will exploit a refugee settlement program that randomly dispersed refugees across the country, conditional on a set of demographic characteristics and housing availability. This natural experiment introduces conditionally exogenous variation in the demographic composition at the neighborhood level for new and incumbent residents. The project will complement this natural experiment with granular geographical data that accommodate the resizing/redefining of neighborhoods. This flexibility and the policy-induced variation will allow causal estimation of the impacts of neighborhood segregation on the use of neighbor networks in job search. In so doing, the research will help bridge two areas of economic literature – neighborhood effects and networks-based informal hiring – that heretofore have developed largely in isolation from each other. The results of this research will provide guidance on improving the functioning of labor markets, especially for those in segregated neighborhoods. The results could therefore help guide policies to reduce unemployment in low income segregated neighborhoods.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项全部或部分由2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。基于地点的就业政策，如非正式的邻里求职，是促进当地就业增长和减少区域经济不平等的常用工具。然而，目前还不清楚是什么让一个社区适合找工作。本研究计画将探讨其中一种机制--邻居网路在工作搜寻中的应用。 它探讨了哪种类型的社区-隔离或融合，种族和教育-更有利于成功的求职。要弄清社区对求职的影响是很困难的，部分原因是人们会自己选择社区。研究人员使用了一项关于难民的政策实验，这些难民被随机分配到全国各地的社区，以克服自我选择问题。 该项目可以帮助阐明如何利用当地社会关系，有效地重新安置这些特殊移民，并使他们更快地融入目的地的劳动力市场。第二，在回答这个问题时，这个研究项目将朝着理解邻里多样性和繁荣之间的关系迈出一步。 这项研究的结果可以为改善劳动力市场的运作提供指导，特别是对那些在隔离的社区。 因此，研究结果可能有助于指导降低低收入隔离社区失业率的政策。由于住宅分类，识别总体社区效应具有挑战性。不同的个体可能出于计量经济学家无法观察到的原因而选择居住在不同的地方。为了克服这一选择问题并获得因果关系，该项目将利用一个难民安置计划，该计划将难民随机分散在全国各地，条件是一系列人口特征和住房供应。这个自然的实验引入了有条件的外生变化的人口组成在邻里水平的新的和现任居民。该项目将补充这一自然实验与粒度的地理数据，以适应社区的重新定义。这种灵活性和政策引起的变化将允许对社区隔离对求职中使用邻居网络的影响进行因果估计。在这样做的过程中，这项研究将有助于弥合两个领域的经济文献-邻里效应和网络为基础的非正式雇用-迄今为止，在很大程度上是孤立的发展。 这项研究的结果将为改善劳动力市场的运作提供指导，特别是对那些在隔离社区的人。 该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。