Geographic Labor Mobility Research Articles

Housing markets and geographical labour mobility to high-productivity regions: The case of Stockholm

In many countries, there are signs of declining migration to high-productivity urban areas due to restrictions in the housing market and increasing regional differences in housing prices. Using detailed population-wide register data for Sweden, we estimate how regional variation in housing prices and homeownership is associated with the individual’s decision whether to accept a job offer in the Stockholm metropolitan region and the interrelated choice between migration and commuting as the mobility mode. Our findings indicate that high relative housing prices in the Stockholm area and homeownership are associated with decreasing total geographical labour mobility to the region. This is pronounced among the young and among highly skilled workers. The negative effects of high relative housing prices and homeownership on migration are partially but not fully compensated by positive effects on commuting to Stockholm.

Global Economic Integration and Nativist Politics in Emerging Economies

AbstractNativist political movements are globally ascendant. In advanced democracies, rising anti‐immigrant politics is in part a backlash against economic globalization. In emerging economies, where nativists primarily target internal migrants, there is little investigation of whether trade liberalization fuels antimigrant sentiment, perhaps because trade benefits workers in these contexts. I argue that global economic integration causes nativist backlash in emerging economies even though it does not dislocate workers. I highlight an alternative mechanism: geographic labor mobility. Workers strategically migrate to access geographically uneven global economic opportunity. This liberalization‐induced mobility interacts with native–migrant cleavages to generate nativist backlash. I explore these dynamics in the Indian textile sector, which experienced a positive shock following global trade liberalization in 2005. Using a difference‐in‐differences analysis, I find that exposed localities experienced increased internal migration and nativism, manifesting in antimigrant rioting and nativist party support. Liberalization can fuel nativism even when its economic impacts are positive.

Measurement errors in geographical labour mobility using data linkage: the Spanish case

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the reliability and accuracy of the relationships between migration and employment status when estimated using a linked data set. The analysis will be carried out using a new source, the Labour and Geographical Mobility Statistics, which is provided by the Spanish Statistical Office. This statistic is constructed by an exact matching procedure, linking the Labour Force Survey with the Official Population Register. The findings reveal that in order to accurately study geographic labour mobility, timing and geographical coherence between the two data sets must exist. If this is not the case, causality relations between the labour market and geographical mobility cannot be properly analysed. Although our analysis refers to the microdata quality and internal coherence of this new Spanish statistic, our conclusion can be extended to any linked data set for studying geographic labour mobility, including the population censuses mainly based on administrative data.

Migration, Labor Mobility and Household Poverty in Nigeria: A Gender Analysis

The increase in the geographical mobility of labour as a result of poverty, unemployment and unstable economic conditions, among other factors, especially among professionals, has been associated with a brain drain in Nigeria. Despite the high level of migration and subsequent remittances from migrants, a large proportion of Nigerians still live in poverty. The increased participation of women in migration in the country also brings to the fore the existence of gender-specific migration experiences and how this has in turn affected their households. Based on gender, this study assesses the extent of labour mobility, its determinants and how it influences remittance inflows and household poverty using the logit regression model Propensity Score Matching and Linear Regression with Endogenous Treatment Effect Approach. Results reveal that while more males travelled for employment purposes, more females travelled due to marriage arrangements. More of the migrants that were working after migration had worked before migration and had the highest average amount of remittance sent to households. The study shows that labour mobility increases the amount of remittance sent to households. However, the increase was higher among male migrants than female migrants. More than half of the migrants had poor households; meanwhile, labour mobility was found to reduce the extent of poverty. The study recommended that policies that improve the welfare of labour and reduce the brain drain, unemployment and closures of enterprises in the country should be put in place. Also, effective policies and interventions that promote the use of remittances to achieve maximum reductions in poverty should be pursued.

Central-East European employees on the labour market of London

Purpose – The purpose of our exploratory research was to get acquainted with the socio-demographic characteristics, motivations, workplace conditions and social participation of foreign workers from different Central and Eastern European countries to London. Design/methodology/approach – The survey was conducted as a questionnaire in London, in English and Hungarian. The sample (n = 307) is based on individuals coming from different countries to London who are legally working. The pattern came through personal relationships. Examining the characteristics of the examined sample with descriptive statistics and the relationship between the examined quality variables were analysed by a Chi-square test. The investigation is primarily exploratory, but it also reveals some cause and effect relationships. Findings – Our study gives an overview of the motivation, characteristics and integration of the Central-East European employees in England in a theoretical and empirical context and publishes the main findings of the examinations on integration. In general, it can be stated that social integration was achieved to a certain extent in the case of the examined sample. The research and analysis are justified by the globalisation of the labour market and the increasing transnational migration. Research limitations/implications – The review aims at detail and thoroughness, but it is not complete. The findings at the end of the analysis are rather thought provoking, but we hope that we can also contribute to scientific and everyday discourse on migration. Practical implications – The conclusions of the study provide an adequate framework for the development of a rational economic policy program, which is the basis for future development, for the conscious development of the future of our region. Originality/Value – The novelty of the study lies in the composition of the sample on the one hand, and on the other hand, the study mainly focuses on the labour market. Keywords: Central and Eastern European employees, integration, labour migration, geographic mobility. Research type: research paper. JEL classification: J15 – Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labour Discrimination J61 – Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

Geographic Labor Mobility of Floating Migrant Workers in China: The Impacts of Health Status and Education on Earnings

The geographic labor mobility has been ignored in the studies related to the impacts of health status or education on floating migrant workers’ earnings in China. Based on a dataset collected by the World Bank collaborated with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2010, we initiate the assessment of geographic mobility and explore the indirect impacts from health, education, and other factors on earnings through it. A relatively poor, single, educated migrant in good health with parent at home working in the manufacturing sector presents the strongest geographic mobility. The comparative results indicate that the total health impacts on earnings are generally underestimated for migrant workers at poor or fair health status and the education advancement has a greater impact on earnings for the majority of migrant workers who exhibit the “healthy migrant effect”. Our findings not only justify the ground of mixed results in the previous studies but also provide policy making implications. Given the concave relationship between health status and geographic labor mobility, the ongoing health care reform in China should provide local affordable services to attract returning migrants and enhance their earnings.

Re‐imagining Geographic Labour Mobility through ‘Distance Labour’

Geographic labour mobility is necessary for increasing productivity in Australia. Long‐distance commuting has been found to be especially significant. However, important considerations are being excluded from policy discussions within the Productivity Commission on this topic. This commentary covers these important omissions. They are, namely, the problematic conflation of the terminologies of ‘fly‐in, fly‐out’ and ‘long‐distance commuting’ with mining, and a lack of qualitative research investigating the material impacts of these labour practices on people's lives. This commentary puts forward a new terminology, ‘distance labour’, to better include those industries on the margins of distance commuting. By accounting for the social worlds of workers engaged in distance labour, the Productivity Commission could increase the validity of its datasets, and provide more egalitarian policy recommendations.

Home-Ownership, Unemployed's Job Search Behavior and Post-Unemployment Outcomes

Although home-ownership has been shown to restrict geographic labor mobility and to affect job search behavior of unemployed, there is no evidence so far on how it affects their future re-employment outcomes. We use two waves of detailed German survey data of newly unemployed individuals to study the effect of home-ownership on the job search behavior of unemployed and their re-employment outcomes. We show that unemployed who own a home are less willing to move and also less likely to apply for jobs for which one would have to move. However, we do not find any evidence for compensations of their restricted mobility by more intensive (more search channels or applications) or different (more active or informal) search behavior. Furthermore, we find that home-ownership does not seem to harm the employment prospects of the unemployed. Although the re-employment probability in the short-run is slightly lower, we find that after one year home-owning unemployed have found better re-employment jobs, in terms of wages and job satisfaction, than their renting counterparts.

Geographic Labor Mobility as an Element of Adjustment Process in the Eurozone Countries and the USA States

Abstract The aim of the article is to compare geographic labor mobility (the migration channel of adjustment) in the eurozone and the USA since the 1990s. The first part of the article contains a review of selected literature on migration in Europe and the USA. In the second part three hypotheses are formulated on the basis of this review. The third part of the article presents the methodology and data used to verify these hypotheses. Tat methodology rests on analyzing how net emigration rates in the period 1992-2011 in eurozone countries and various states in the United States (plus the District of Columbia) reacted to unemployment rates. The fourth part of the article presents the results of the analysis, together with an explanation of the intensity and dynamics of the migration channel of adjustment in both monetary unions. The analysis confirms that migration has been less supportive for the functioning of the monetary union in the eurozone than in the USA. It also shows that visible strengthening of the migration channel in the eurozone seems to have taken place only after 2004, which suggests an association with the European Union enlargement in 2004. For the eurozone, the analysis does not provide convincing evidence that the migration channel strengthened after the outbreak of the fnancial crisis. For the USA the analysis suggests that the fnancial and economic crisis significantly weakened the migration channel. The article ends with concluding remarks.

Deficiencias estruturais, emigración interrexional e fuga de cerebros: o caso de Galicia

A mobilidade do factor traballo é, especialmente nesta etapa de globalización económica, un aspecto positivo que promove a competitividade. Non obstante, é tamén un elemento que pode determinar a existencia de deficiencias estruturais nas rexións ou nos países de orixe dos emigrantes. Galicia é unha Comunidade cunha ampla traxectoria na expulsión de man de obra. Nos anos finais do pasado século empezan a detectarse evidencias de que en Galicia se está a producir unha nova emigración. O obxecto desta investigación é cuantificar estes movementos de man de obra e verificar cales son as causas da moderna terceira emigración en Galicia.

Regional Labour Mobility as an Adjustment Mechanism in the Eurozone

This paper focuses on the susceptibility of geographical labour mobility to act as an adjustment mechanism in the Area and tries to estimate the short-run responses of migration to unemployment rates and incomes in Germany, France and Spain, during the last decade.

Inter-provincial migration and inequality during Vietnam's transition

Vietnam's economic boom during the transition to a market economy has centered on very rapid growth in some sectors and provinces, yet poverty has diminished across the entire country. With capital investments highly concentrated by province and sector, geographic labor mobility may be critical in spreading the gains from growth. Conversely, rising income inequality may be attributable in part to impediments to migration. We first use census data to investigate migration patterns and determinants. We then examine the role of migration as an influence on income ratios between pairs of provinces. The former analysis robustly confirms economic motives for migration but also suggests the existence of poverty-related labor immobility at the provincial level. Examination of income ratios between pairs of provinces reveals that the impact of migration on inequality can be either negative or positive. A robust inequality-reducing impact of migration is found for migration flows into provinces where most of Vietnam's trade-oriented industrial investments are located.

Geographic labour mobility and unemployment insurance in Europe

Conventional wisdom suggests that the generous provision of UI in Europe can account for the low regional mobility rates. Emphasizing the disincentive effect, this hypothesis ignores that UI might also have a positive effect by relaxing liquidity constraints in the presence of mobility and search costs. This paper investigates empirically the effect of UI on geographic labour mobility for five European countries. Overall, the findings suggest that receiving benefits is not associated with lower mobility, and they indicate that the effects might vary depending on the institutional characteristics and the incentive structure of the UI system of each country.

Interprovincial Migration and Inequality During Vietnam's Transition

Vietnam's economic boom during the transition to a market economy has centered on very rapid growth in some sectors and some provinces, yet poverty has diminished across the entire country. With capital investments highly concentrated by province and sector, geographic labor mobility may be critical in spreading the gains from growth. Conversely, rising income inequality may be attributable in part to impediments to migration. We first use census data to investigate migration patterns and determinants. We then examine the role of migration as an influence on cross-province income differentials. The former analysis robustly confirms economic motives for migration but also suggests the existence of poverty-related labor immobility at the provincial level. Examination of income differentials between pairs of provinces reveals that the impact of migration on inequality can be either negative or positive. A robust inequality-reducing impact of migration is found for migration flows into provinces where most of Vietnam's trade-oriented industrial investments are located.

Commuting behaviour in sparsely populated areas: evidence from northern Sweden

From a Swedish regional development policy perspective, increased long-distance commuting is viewed as a means for creating larger local labour markets and thus stimulating regional economic growth. One of the prerequisites for such a development is that individuals are willing to commute longer distances. In the context of a relatively peripheral and sparsely populated area in northern Sweden, this paper aims to study commuting behaviour and factors influencing individuals’ propensities to commute longer distances. Using a longitudinal set of geo-referenced data, individuals’ commuting propensities were estimated in a binary logistic regression, and significant effects were found for a range of socio-economic and demographic factors. The results also show that the local labour market’s geographical structure is important. Overall, most individuals commute within their locality of residence and women commute shorter distances than men do – a pattern that has been relatively stable since the beginning of the 1990s. This article attempts to outline causes and effects of this commuting behaviour, which are important to understand in the development of regional development policies aimed at increasing geographical labour mobility.

An SVAR Model of Fluctuations in U.S. Migration Flows and State Labor Market Dynamics

1. IntroductionThe high degree of geographic labor mobility is often thought to play a key role in the relative flexibility of the U.S. economy (Evans and McCormick 1994; Decressin and Fatas 1995). Regional mobility in the United States has been reported to be at least 3.5 times greater than that of the United Kingdom (Hughes and McCormick 1994) and two to three times higher than most European Union nations (Obstfeld and Peri 1998). Labor migration can equilibrate regional labor markets exposed to asymmetric demand shocks because employed or jobless individuals in areas that are experiencing a relative (to the national average) economic downturn can migrate to areas that are not as adversely affected, reducing the aggregate unemployment rate (Archibald 1969). The resulting net employment gains increase aggregate output. Thus, if migration flows mainly smooth over asymmetric demand shocks, greater regional labor mobility improves macroeconomic performance and enhances the effectiveness of a currency union or monetary policy (Mundell 1961; Bayoumi and Eichengreen 1993; Obstfeld and Peri 1998).An often-overlooked aspect is there may be shifts in population location unrelated to changing job fortunes, which implies that migration becomes an additional source of labor-market fluctuations. The dramatic modern shift in U.S. population to warmer and amenity-attractive areas in the South and West suggests that migration flows may be key sources of regional economic shocks (Graves 1979; Mueser and Graves 1995; Rappaport 2004). So, if U.S. migration flows are greatly influenced by other factors besides demand shocks, large aggregate migration flows may not be necessarily indicative of a more flexible labor market, and may even work against adjustment to regional demand shocks, which would contrast with prevailing economic wisdom.A related issue is migration's role in affecting economic development policies such as tax breaks, subsidies, educational support, and infrastructure. In assessing the effectiveness of economic development policies that alter labor demand, Bartik (1991, 1993) finds that migration is the primary supply response, but he also reports that demand shocks induce modest permanent changes in local unemployment and labor-force participation rates. To the extent that migrants take the new jobs, economic development policies are less effective in improving economic outcomes of a region's original residents. Conversely, Eberts and Stone (1992) report that increased labor-force participation is the primary supply response to demand shocks, suggesting that original residents benefit more from employment growth. Decressin and Fatas (1995) similarly find that shifts in labor-force participation are the primary short-run supply responses to demand shocks in Europe.In short, not only do migration fluctuations reflect responses to asymmetric regional demand shocks, they also reflect supply-side innovations and affect whether local economic development policies are successful in benefiting original residents. Therefore, this paper utilizes a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) approach to carefully examine the fluctuations in U.S. migration from the 1970s through the 1990s for the lower 48 states. In assessing the proportion of migration fluctuations that are responses to labor demand shocks versus being sources of shocks themselves, a primary goal will be to appraise migration's role in facilitating regional and overall U.S. labor-market flexibility in responding to asymmetric shocks. The results have implications for assessing both the transmission mechanism of macroeconomic policies and the effectiveness of state and local economic development policies. Indeed, one of the more interesting findings is that the underlying determinants of a particular state's migration flows can differ from the underlying causes of its employment growth (e.g., Partridge and Rickman 2003).1The next section discusses the theoretical underpinnings of migration fluctuations. …

Self-Selection and the Returns to Geographic Mobility: What Can Be Learned from the German Reunification 'Experiment'

This paper investigates the causal effect of geographic labour mobility on income. The returns to German East-West migration and commuting are estimated exploiting the structure of centrally planned economies and a natural experiment of German reunification for identification. I find that migration premium is insignificantly different from zero, the returns for commuters equal to four percent of the mean of the total income, and the local average treatment effects for compliers are insignificant. In addition, estimation results suggest no positive selection on unobservables for migrants, and some evidence of positive self-selection for commuters. Based on these results, moving West does not appear to be a highly rewarded option in Germany.

A model of multiple equilibria in geographic labor mobility

We develop a model of double matching in the labor market and the social environment in order to explain different migration patterns in response to local economic shocks. This approach explains the different behaviors of workers in different groups, regions, or countries in an endogenous way by showing the existence of multiple equilibria, rather than in an exogenous manner by introducing ex ante regulations or unemployment benefits. This model can also explain why individuals from some communities form ‘sister’ communities in some cases and not in others.

Geographic Labour Mobility and Unemployment Insurance in Europe

Conventional wisdom suggests that unemployment benefits create a stronger geographic attachment by lowering the willingness of the unemployed to accept job offers. We assess empirically the effect of benefits on geographic labour mobility using individual data from the European Community Household Panel for France, Germany, Spain, and the UK. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, we find that receiving benefits enhances mobility offsetting the negative effect of benefits on the incentives to move. We estimate binary choice panel data models controlling for unobserved heterogeneity using random and fixed effects. The results are invariant to the estimated model.

Geographical Labour Mobility: Migration or Commuting?

ELIASSON K., LINDGREN U. and WESTERLUND O. (2003) Geographical labour mobility: migration or commuting?, Reg. Studies 37 , 827-837. In this paper, we examine how individual labour market status and spatial variations in employment opportunities influence interregional job search behaviour and mobility decisions in Sweden. The econometric analysis is based on 290,000 individual observations and refers to the years 1994-95. The empirical results show that the probability of interregional labour mobility unexpectedly decreases with the accessibility to employment opportunities in neighbouring regions. As expected, the findings reveal that accessibility to job openings in surrounding regions significantly increases the likelihood of choosing commuting as the mobility mode. Moreover, the empirical findings indicate that individual unemployment experience increases the likelihood of mobility as well as migration. ELIASSON K., LINDGREN U. et WESTERLUND O. (2003) La mobilité géographique du travail: la migration ou les migrations quotidiennes?, Reg. Studies 37 , 827-837. Cet article cherche à examiner comment l'importance des marchés du travail et la variation géographique des possibilités d'emploi particulières influent sur le comportement pour ce qui est de la recherche d'emploi interrégionale et de la mobilité en Suède. L'analyse économétrique est fondée sur 290 000 observations individuelles et remonte à la période de 1994 à 1995. Les résultats empiriques laissent voir que la probabilité de la mobilité interrégionale du travail décroisse de façon inattendue en fonction de l'accessibilité des possibilités d' emploi dans les régions voisines. Comme prévu, les résultats laissent voir que l'accessibilité des possibilités de travail dans les régions environnantes augmente sensiblement la probabilité que les migrations quotidiennes vont devenir le mode préféré pour se rendre au travail. En outre, les résultats laissent voir que le profil individuel quant aux situations de chômage augmente la probabilité de la mobilité ainsi que de la migration. ELIASSON K., LINDGREN U. und WESTERLUND O. (2003) Geographische Mobilität von Arbeitskrä ften, Reg. Studies 37 , 827-837. In diesem Aufsatz wird untersucht, inwiefern in Schweden individuelle Arbeitsmarktstellung und räumliche Abweichungen bei offenen Stellen interregionales Verhalten bei Stellensuche und Mobilitä tsentscheidungen beeinflussen. Die ökonornische, Analyse stützt sich auf 290,000 Einzelbeobachtungen und bezieht sich auf die Jahre 1994-1995. Die empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen, daß die Wahrscheinlichkeit interregionaler Mobilität von Arbeitskräften überraschenderweise mit der Zugänglichkeit offener Stellen in benachbarten Regionen abnimmt. Wie erwartet, zeigen die Befunde, daß die Zugänglichkeit offener Stellen in den Regionen der Umgebung die Wahrscheinlichkeit, Pendeln als Mobilitätsform zu wahlen, signifikant zunehmen läßt. Außerdem weisen die empirischen Befunde darauf hin, daß derjenige, der weiß, was es bedeutet, arbeitslos zu sein, eher zu Mobilität wie auch zu Wanderung neigt.