IMF Working Papers

The paper provides an empirical investigation of labor market pooling. The analysis concentrates on Italian industrial districts and shows that there is scattered evidence of a widespread wage premium. In particular, there is no evidence of district differentials for the returns to seniority while there is evidence of negative differentials for the returns to education. Moreover, dwelling in a district has no impact on the probability of being self-employed and only a minor impact on the likelihood of transiting from wage-and-salary to self-employment. Finally, there is no evidence of higher district worker mobility across jobs.