Locked in by Leverage: Job Search during the Housing Crisis
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 household mobility.
Non-Technical Summaries
- Owning homes in distressed housing markets reduced job seekers' mobility, damaging their long-term career prospects. The housing...
Published Versions
Jennifer Brown & David A. Matsa, 2019. "Locked In by Leverage: Job Search during the Housing Crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, . citation courtesy of