Abstract
Abstract By examining the preferences over migration destinations of those revealing a desire to permanently leave their country, this paper provides new evidence on the relevance of subjective measures for cross country comparisons. While hard statistics such as GDP per capita and unemployment rates are commonly used to measure a country’s success, this analysis reveals that people’s preferences over alternative migration destinations are better explained by average levels of life satisfaction in the destination country. Aggregated measures of subjective well-being are, therefore, useful for international comparisons as they better reflect what makes some countries more attractive than others. JEL: F22; I30
Highlights
Income per capita is commonly used to measure a country’s level of well-being, and it has often been considered the best approximation of quality of life across countries
By examining the preferences over migration destinations of those revealing a desire to permanently leave their country, this paper provides new evidence on the relevance of subjective measures for cross country comparisons
6 Conclusions This paper investigates the factors that influence the preferences over migration destinations of potential migrants in 25 European countries
Summary
Income per capita is commonly used to measure a country’s level of well-being, and it has often been considered the best approximation of quality of life across countries. While hard statistics such as GDP per capita and unemployment rates are commonly used to measure a country’s success, this analysis reveals that people’s preferences over alternative migration destinations are better explained by average levels of life satisfaction in the destination country. This paper provides new evidence on the relevance of subjective measures for international comparisons by investigating the determinants of destination choices of potential migrants, i.e., those people revealing a desire to permanently leave their country.
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