Rural Homeownership and Labour Mobility in the United States

Regional Studies. Are rural homeowners in the workforce as mobile as urban homeowners? This paper focuses on whether rural unemployed homeowners end their unemployment spells more or less often without moving than urban homeowners. A competing hazard model is estimated using a five-year panel that controls for the demographics of the individuals and the economic characteristics of their workplaces. Evidence is found that unemployed rural homeowners appear to be less mobile than unemployed urban homeowners, which may suggest the presence of a lock-in effect similar to those identified by other researchers associated with subsidized housing, homeownership compared with renting, and mortgage illiquidity.