Analyzing the impact of labor market integration

We develop a competitive search model involving multiple regions, geographically mobile workers, and moving costs. Equilibrium mobility patterns are analyzed and characterized, indicating that shocks to a particular region, such as a productivity shock, can propagate to other regions through workersf mobility. Moreover, equilibrium mobility patterns are not efficient due to the existence of moving costs, implying that they affect social welfare not only because they are costs but also because they distort equilibrium allocation. By calibrating our framework to Japanese regional data, we demonstrate that the impacts of eliminating migration costs are comparable to those of a 30% productivity increase.