In this thesis, I study the local employment multiplier effect; the effect of employment in the tradable sector on employment in the non-tradable sector of the same region. Using a reduced form regression with a shift-share instrument I find a significant local multiplier effect in Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the USA. I show that this result is robust to many different regional definitions, controls and ways of classifying tradable industries. I find larger multipliers for high-wage or high-skilled workers in the tradable sector and I find that most of the jobs created in the non-tradable sector are fulfilled by high-skilled workers who already reside in the region. A replication of the most influential paper in this literature, by Moretti (AER; 2010), demonstrates the sensitivity of his results to six idiosyncrasies of his analysis. To better understand how these local multipliers work, I develop an efficiency wage model with rural-urban migration for the non-tradable sector. In this model, I consider the impact of a shock to employment in the tradable sector in the city and find a positive local employment multiplier effect. The model predicts that attracting tradable jobs to a city has a bigger positive impact on employment in the non-tradable sector in the same city when the unemployment rate is higher. The model also predicts that this increase is driven by a larger multiplier for current inhabitants and that there is no, or even a negative, effect of the unemployment rate on the multiplier for movers. Both these predictions are reflected in the results of my non-parametric analysis of the data. I find similar results for European TL3 regions. Policies that try to increase growth in less favoured regions by stimulating tradable firms to locate in areas with high unemployment, will both reduce disparities between regions and efficiently reduce unemployment across the board.

Local governments are often willing to offer companies generous tax incentives to attract businesses to their region. In the United States, many states have tried to attract film productions and establish local film industries by offering different forms of state film tax incentives. As a prominent example of this, the state of Georgia offers a film tax credit which has no annual maximum compensation cap, creating an attractive tax environment for large film productions. The purpose of this study is to investigate if the Georgia state “Film, Television and Digital Entertainment Tax Credit” significantly affected film jobs in the state, and if any other industries were also affected through cross-industry employment spillovers. A difference in differences approach was used by way of the synthetic control case study method. This method estimates the counterfactual development of the outcome variable by creating a synthetic Georgia consisting of a weighted combination of untreated states. The results show a large and highly significant effect of the tax credit on film production jobs. However, little evidence of employment spillovers from the film industry is found, with only a select few affected industries being insurance and interior design. These results imply that tax incentives can establish a local film industry, but likely only if the annual maximum compensation is high or uncapped, making for a significantly more generous incentive than the average.

Diese Dissertation umfasst vier Essays, die einen Beitrag zur empirischen Literatur über die Determinanten der Veränderungen in der Beschäftigungs- und Lohnstruktur in Deutschland leisten. Im ersten Aufsatz wird der Zusammenhang zwischen technologischem Wandel und Wachstum von Beschäftigung am unteren Ende der Lohnverteilung untersucht. Eine ökonometrische Analyse zeigt, dass technologischer Wandel die Arbeitsnachfrage von routine-intensiven Berufen hin zu Berufen verschiebt, die niedrig entlohnte manuelle Tätigkeiten erfordern und sich nicht zur Substitution durch Informationstechnologien eignen. Damit trägt er zur Polarisierung der Beschäftigungsstrukturen bei. Der zweite Aufsatz untersucht die Rolle von technologischem Wandel in der Entstehung räumlicher Lohnungleichheiten. Es wird gezeigt, dass technologischer Wandel zu einem Zuwachs in der Entlohnung von nicht-routine kognitiven Tätigkeiten und zu einem Rückgang der Entlohnung für routine und nicht-routine manuelle Tätigkeiten führte und damit zur Vergrößerung der inter- und intra-regionalen Lohnungleichheit beitrug. Der dritte Aufsatz untersucht die Beschäftigungswirkung von Produktmarktderegulierung am Beispiel der Liberalisierung der Ladenschlussgesetze, wobei regionale Variation in der Gesetzgebung zur Identifikation des kausalen Effekts dient. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Beschäftigung im Einzelhandel durch die Deregulierung um etwa 19.000 vollzeitäquivalente Stellen zurückging. Dem zugrunde liegt ein signifikanter Rückgang an kleinen Unternehmen, die personalintensiver arbeiten als große Unternehmen. Im vierten Aufsatz werden die Auswirkungen von öffentlicher Beschäftigung auf die Beschäftigung im Privatsektor untersucht. Ergebnis ist, dass die Schaffung öffentlicher Beschäftigung erhebliche Verdrängungseffekte auf die Gesamtbeschäftigung im Privatsektor hat, wobei hauptsächlich der handelbare Sektor von Beschäftigungsverlusten betroffen ist. / This thesis consists of four essays that contribute to the empirical literature on the determinants of recent changes in the employment and wage structure in Germany. The first essay analyzes recent employment growth at the lower tail of the wage distribution and its relation to technological progress. An econometric analysis suggests that tech-nological progress has shifted the demand from routine intensive occupations towards low-paying service occupations that require non-routine manual tasks, which are difficult to be replaced by information technologies, thereby contributing to the polarization of the employment structure. The second essay explores the role of technological change in the evolution of spatial wage inequality. The results indicate technological change is one driver of wage inequality by increasing the compensation for non-routine cognitive tasks, and by decreasing the compensation for routine and non-routine manual tasks. The third essay exploits regional variation in the liberalization of shop-closing legislation in Germany to identify the causal impact of product market deregulation on employment outcomes in the retail sector. The results from the empirical analysis suggest that the deregulation had moderately negative effects on retail employment, leading to a loss of approximately 19,000 full-time equivalent jobs. The reason is that deregulation induced a change in the market structure by significantly decreasing the number of small retail stores which are relatively more personnel-intensive than larger formats. The fourth essay provides an empirical analysis of the impact of changes in public sector employment on employment in the private sector at the level of local labor markets. It shows that expansions in public employment can be associated with a sizeable crowding out effect on private sector employment. Moreover, the results indicate that employment losses are concentrated in the tradable sector.