Ethnic Unemployment Rates and Frictional Markets
type: Dataset
description: The unemployment rate in France is roughly 6 percentage points higher for African immigrants than for natives. In the US the unemployment rate is approximately 9 percentage points higher for blacks than for whites. Commute time data indicates that minorities face longer commute times to work, potentially reecting more di cult access to jobs. In this paper we investigate the impact of spatial mismatch on the unemployment rate of ethnic groups using the matching model proposed by Rupert and Wasmer (2012). We nd that spatial factors explain from 1 to 1.5 percentage points of the unemployment rate gap in both France and the US, amounting to 17% to 25% of the relative gap in France and about 10% to 17.5% in the US. Among these factors, di erences in commuting distance play the most important role. In France, though, longer commuting distances may be mitigated by higher mobility in the housing market for African workers. Overall, we still conclude that labor market factors remain the main explanation for the higher unemployment rate of Africans.
landing page: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00849074
keyword: discrimination
keyword: ethnic-groups
keyword: infoeu-reposemanticspreprint
keyword: jel-e---macroeconomics-and-monetary-economicsee2---consumption-saving-production-investment-l
keyword: jel-r---urban-rural-regional-real-estate-and-transportation-economicsrr2---household-analysis
keyword: local-markets
keyword: matching-models
keyword: preprints-working-papers-
keyword: shsecohumanities-and-social-scienceseconomics-and-finance
issued: 2026-05-10T04:54:05.299385
modified: 2026-05-10T04:54:05.299390
language: en
contact point: Organization
  fn: CCSD

test_moissonnage_selune
type: Agent

Ethnic Unemployment Rates and Frictional Markets
type: Distribution
format: HTML
access URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00849074
issued: 2026-05-10T04:54:05.302011
modified: 2026-05-10T04:54:05.286354