Essays on regional unemployment and policies

This thesis analyzes the impacts of long-distance job search and payroll tax cuts on regional unemployment in the long run. We help in reconciling some contradictory micro and macro evidence thanks to general equilibrium models with matching frictions. The first two chapters deal with the impact of long-distance job search, a behavior that the Internet facilitates substantially. Chapter 1 is devoted to a tractable static model. It helps in understanding how long-distance job search can have an ambiguous impact on regional unemployment rates. The mechanisms explained in Chapter 1 are challenged in Chapter 2, using a dynamic framework. A numerical exercise on a stylized US economy shows that the development of the Internet did not have much impact on regional unemployment rates. Chapter 3 focuses on place-based policies. It explains why substantial payroll tax cuts can have a limited impact on local unemployment rates in the long run. In particular, we put the emphasis on the mismatch between workers and jobs. We simulate the introduction of the French “Zones Franches Urbaines” and conclude that a higher degree of mismatch lowers the impact of the policy on unemployment rates.