The Unassuming Economist

From a paper by François de Soyres, Simon Fuchs, Illenin O. Kondo, and Helene Maghin:

“We show how local worker flow adjustment margins yield a theory-consistent sufficient statistic
approximating the welfare effects of local shocks. Furthermore, we isolate a city’s insurance value
as this approximation’s second-order term. Leveraging rich labor flows data across occupations,
industries, and cities in France, we estimate spatial and non-spatial flows responses to local labor
demand shocks. Less economically diverse French cities experience deeper contractions in gross
outflows following negative shocks. In contrast, more economic concentration begets a modestly
larger increase in gross worker flows following positive shocks. Altogether, we uncover a sizable
welfare insurance gains from local economic diversity.”