Regional Labor Markets, Network Externalities and Migration: The Case of German Reunification
研究德国统一后东德地区持续移民的原因，发现18-29岁年轻人加速离开，并通过扩展劳动力搜索模型解释东西德两种均衡状态。
Fifteen years after German reunification, the facts about slow regional convergence have born out the prediction of Barro (1991), except that migration out of East Germany has not slowed down. I document that in particular the 18-29 year old are leaving East Germany, and that the emigration has accelerated in recent years. To understand these patterns, I provide an extension of the standard labor search model by allowing for migration and network externalities. In that theory, two equilibria can result: one with a high networking rate, high average labor productivity, low unemployment and no emigration (“West Germany”) and one with a low networking rate, low average labor productivity, high unemployment and a constant rate of emigration (“East Germany”). The model does not imply any obviously sound policies to move from the weakly networked equilibrium to the highly networked equilibrium.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)