On-the-Job Search and City Structure

We investigate an equilibrium search model in which the search frictions are increasing with the distance to the central business district allowing for on-the-job search and endogenous (monopsony) wage formation and land allocation. We find that there are many different possible outcomes with respect to the location of unemployed workers within a metropolitan area. The city structure of the decentralized market is only efficient when commuting costs of the employed workers are large. Policies reducing the rental costs of unemployed workers for locations close to the central business district can potentially increase welfare.