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Reviews a number of contributions to migration analysis. Discusses some of the rudiments of migration modelling before turning attention to specific applications. Pays particular attention to articles which have modelled the interaction between labour and housing markets.

The main aim of this paper is to find whether homeownership can have detrimental effect on employment in The Czech Republic.

Oswald’s conjecture is tested on the set of panel data across Czech regions between the years of 2005 and 2012.

By testing a model similar to Oswald’s, this paper receives the similar result that the rate of homeownership leads to higher rate of unemployment in following years. The second model tested in the paper does not support previous findings that regional rate of homeownership has negative effect on individual’s probability of being unemployed.

Findings of this paper are valid only for The Czech Republic. Possible refinements to the model are presented as inspiration for further research.

Results bring a powerful argument into debate about subsidization of homeowners through building societies.

This paper is a first examination of Oswald’s hypothesis in The Czech Republic. It opens a debate about whether Oswald’s conjecture holds outside of the Western world.

This study uses a longitudinal data set of administrative records to investigate geographical mobility among unemployment benefit recipients in Australia, focusing on the role of regional differences in employment opportunity and housing costs. Two statistical approaches are used. The first is to model the probability that a benefit recipient changes region within a 12‐month period, with measures of employment opportunity and housing costs in the “home” region included among the explanatory variables. The second models flows between regions, with the regional differentials included among the regressors. Rather than providing evidence that unemployed persons move to areas of higher employment opportunity, the results are suggestive of poverty traps in which the unemployed move to areas of lower living costs and hence lower employment opportunity. There is some evidence of negative incentive effects of unemployment benefit levels on mobility, but this is difficult to ascertain due to the limited variation in that variable.

We examine the relationship between the business cycle and poverty for the period from 1960 to 2008 using income data from the Current Population Survey and consumption data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. This new evidence on the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and poverty is of particular interest, given recent changes in antipoverty policies that have placed greater emphasis on participation in the labor market and in-kind transfers. We look beyond official poverty, examining alternative income poverty and consumption poverty, which have conceptual and empirical advantages as measures of the well-being of the poor. We find that both income and consumption poverty are sensitive to macroeconomic conditions. A 1 percentage point increase in unemployment is associated with an increase in the after-tax income poverty rate of 0.9–1.1 percentage points in the long run, and an increase in the consumption poverty rate of 0.3–1.2 percentage points in the long run. The evidence on whether income is more responsive to the business cycle than consumption is mixed. Income poverty does appear to be more responsive using national level variation, but consumption poverty is often more responsive to unemployment when using regional variation. Low percentiles of both income and consumption are sensitive to macroeconomic conditions, and in most cases, low percentiles of income appear to be more responsive than low percentiles of consumption.

While some EU countries have successfully reduced unemployment and increased employment, others could only accomplish partial success; therefore, unemployment rates across the EU are still much higher than in the 1970s. There are still large regional differences in terms of unemployment despite considerable region-specific transactions to counter-act such differences. Different employment outcomes are the consequence of many factors – such as the demographic trends, the general economic situation, the structure of the economy, the existing welfare and labour market situation, or the level of employment protection – but it may also be the outcome of the effectiveness of the local labour market measures. Local action is important for effective employment policies. Where national policies and implementation measures are sufficiently flexible and adjustable, local level actors can develop integrated approaches to economic growth, maximizing employment opportunities and helping to lessen inequalities and social exclusion in their communities. Mobilization and activity of local communities in combating unemployment are essential to translate national and regional strategies into action on the ground. Local actors purportedly best understand local conditions, aspirations, and needs. There is no magic button for overcoming obstacles and problems, but there are some positive experiences that can be applied or adjusted. The chapter describes the activities and experiences of EU and local initiatives and the problems of institutional organizations.

The paper aims to present an analysis of the indirect and direct effects of active labour market policy measures at the regional level for Western Germany.

Most evaluation studies of active labour market policy focus on the microeconometric treatment effect using individual data and do not account for possible indirect effects like deadweight and substitution effects. The present study uses a dynamic specification of the augmented matching function at the regional level. A dynamic panel data model is estimated using monthly and regional variation of different labour market programmes as explanatory variables. Furthermore, spatial interactions are taken into account by adding a spatially correlated error term.

Almost no significant negative effects are found of the stock of participants in programmes of labour market policy on the number of outflows from unemployment into regular jobs. Thus, contrary to findings at the individual level, no lock‐in effect is found. The number of programme participants does not reduce the number of outflows from unemployment. On the other hand when looking not at the stocks but on the outflows from programmes, no positive effects on outflows from unemployment at the regional level are found.

Because of data limitations only a period up to six months after completing a programme is used.

The authors distinguish between the effects of the stock of programme participants and of the outflows from programmes. Furthermore, the authors account for spatially correlated error terms by using a GM estimator proposed by Mutl in 2006.

This study investigates the effect of business cycles on school enrollment in Turkey. During recessions, school enrollment might increase as opportunity cost of schooling declines, yet it might also decrease because of reduced income households have for education. Which effect dominates depends on the context. We empirically explore this in a context displaying canonical features of developing countries.

Using the Turkish Household Labor Force Survey data for a period covering the Great Recession, we estimate the effect of unemployment rate separately for enrollments in general and vocational high schools and in undergraduate programs. To understand the cyclicality, we use a probit model with the regional and time variations in unemployment rates. We also build a simple theoretical model of work-schooling choice to interpret the findings.

We find that the likelihood of enrolling in general high schools and undergraduate programs declines with higher adult unemployment rates, but the likelihood of enrollment in vocational high schools increases. Confronting these empirical findings with the theoretical model suggests that the major factor in enrollment cyclicality in Turkey is how parental resources allocated to education change during recessions by schooling type.

Our finding of pro-cyclical enrollment in academically oriented programs is in contrast with counter-cyclicality documented for similar programs in developed countries, which highlights the importance of income related factors in developing-country contexts. Our heterogeneous findings for general and vocational high schools are also novel.

This contribution seeks to examine the nature of registered unemployment in Britain amongst racial minority group workers as defined for the purposes of the Department of Employment's statistics, namely those born in the New Commonwealth Countries or whose parents were born there. Some preliminary analysis was published by the Department of Employment in 1975 and more recently by Shah. This paper seeks to up‐date and develop these findings further, with particular reference to the impact of the economic cycle upon the level and characteristics of racial minority group unemployment.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the supply (technology, education, labour, unemployment and real estate development) and demand (fiscal revenue and resident income) factors that influence regional entrepreneurial activity in China. Entrepreneurship develops at a rapid pace in China with significant differences among the country’s regions.

Statistics of 31 Chinese provinces from 2005 to 2010 were collected, and an econometric model of the panel data was established.

Empirical results show that technology and employment positively impact on regional entrepreneurial activity. A subsequent analysis comparing data from 2005-2008 to 2009-2010 showed that different variables on regional entrepreneurship weaken during a period of financial crisis, with technology remaining as the only significant variable across all models. Finally, the study summarizes China’s entrepreneurial activity as primarily supply-driven.

This study is limited by the data sources and index design, which may not fully capture all influences on regional entrepreneurship to determine whether an inflection point or other interaction mechanisms exist.

The study demonstrates a differential emphasis on the impact of economic supply factors in a developing economy to positively affect entrepreneurial activities and sustained economic growth at the regional level. Conversely, it can be inferred that increased government spending during an economic crisis positively influences regional entrepreneurial activities.

The study contributes toward the development of a theoretical framework that emphasizes the relationship between entrepreneurial activities and its regional supply and demand factors. The overall model and findings highlight technology’s importance on the development of innovation clusters that spur industrial agglomeration.

In recent years Adrian Ziderman has applied the tools of cost‐benefit analysis to the evaluation of government training and his latest paper analyses the regional location of Government Training Centres (GTCs). Although he is kind enough to suggest that his paper was stimulated by an earlier paper of my own, he has nevertheless been severe in his criticism of me. He claims that I eschew the cost‐benefit approach because I find it wanting. Furthermore, he argues that the alternative criteria that I suggest for evaluating the regional location of GTC capacity are seriously deficient and give rise to policy recommendations which must be “treated with caution”. Here I attempt to meet Ziderman's criticisms of my earlier paper and in passing I comment very briefly upon the paper by Nicholas Adnett which is also critical of the main policy implications of my analysis.