Abstract: This study analyzes whether house rent impedes labor mobility when there are job opportunities for temporary workers and non-regular employees at great distances. I also examine whether owned houses and public housing decrease labor mobility. The number of temporary workers has increased in many developed countries in recent years. The house rent and the related guarantee make it difficult to rent an apartment for temporary workers and non-regular employees. Little is known about the effect of house rent on the labor market, especially for temporary and non-regular employees, although empirical studies have analyzed the effect of the housing price or tenure of dwelling on labor mobility many times. Further, previous studies about labor mobility in Japan, not limited to house rent, use only macro data. Therefore, I use quasi-individual data to estimate the above issues.
House rent especially discourages migration when there are job opportunities for arbeit workers and temporary workers, but not for short-time workers. Further, this effect is greater in the case of migration from 2005 to 2010 than for migration from 1995 to 2000. However, providing housing assistance by way of public housing decreases migration mobility, especially in the case of houses owned by the Urban Renaissance Agency and housing corporations.
JEL Classification: J61, J69
Keywords: geographic labor mobility, house rent, temporary workers, public housing, owned house