The role of location choice as an intergenerational transmission mechanism and in determining unemployment duration

<span >This thesis analyses how the location decision impacts upon intergenerational mobility and unemployment duration. Chapter 1 analyses theoretically within the standard urban framework how location and investment decisions are made when human capital externalities from location exist, as well as how these two factors interact to determine the level of human capital accumulation of the second generation. We consider two distinct forms for the externality effect, and find that in the urban framework with location in continuous space, a sufficiently rich specification for the locational externality is sufficient to provide a viable alternative framework to others used within the literature, even with one-dimensional parental heterogeneity. We also present an initial descriptive look at the extent of intergenerational mobility within the <span >UK<span >. The results suggest the advantages that accrue to sons whose parents chose to locate in an affluent neighbourhood is marked. <span >Chapter 2 provides a more rigorous empirical approach, by merging information on parent and child from NCDS data with socioeconomic neighbourhood information from the 1971 Census. Three different levels of data disaggregation are used to construct the neighbourhood characteristics, and two distinct methods for recovering unobservable permanent wage. We find from a variety of regressions that neighbourhood is an important mechanism in understanding intergenerational mobility. We also find that it is unlikely these results are due to omitted variables concerning family background. Furthermore, the magnitude of these coefficients was found to depend upon the level of data disaggregation at which the neighbourhood characteristics were constructed. <span >Chapter 3 analyses how the neighbourhood in which one resides affects the transition rate from receipt of unemployment benefit into work. We also attempt to ascertain which occupationa