Three Essays on Local Labor Markets

This paper explores the intersection of labor economics and urban-regional economics. An important stream of research in urban economics documents large cross-city variation in prices, wages, and other attributes and seeks to provide theoretical explanations for these observations. Standard economic theory predicts that this variation in the vector of prices will affect decision-making by rational individuals, including decisions relevant to local labor markets. The research is aimed at understanding the importance of locationspecific attributes-such as local wages, local prices (e.g., real estate prices), and commuting times-in studying labor market outcomes.