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Research Details
Locked in by Leverage: Job Search during the Housing Crisis, Journal of Financial Economics
Abstract
This paper examines how housing market distress affects job search. Using data from a leading online job search platform during the Great Recession, we find that job seekers in areas with depressed housing markets apply for fewer jobs that require relocation. With their search constrained geographically, job seekers broaden their search to lower level positions nearby. These effects are stronger for job seekers with recourse mortgages, which we confirm using spatial regression discontinuity analysis. Our findings suggest that housing market distress distorts labor market outcomes by impeding households? ability to move.
Type
Article
Author(s)
Jennifer Brown, David A. Matsa
Date Published
2019
Citations
Brown, Jennifer, and David A. Matsa. 2019. Locked in by Leverage: Job Search during the Housing Crisis. Journal of Financial Economics.(3): 623-648.