Human Capital Differentials Across Urban and Rural Areas in Italy. The Role of Migrations

Abstract

Differences in human capital endowment between the standard partition of Italy (North-South) are pronounced. The divide between urban and rural areas is even more remarkable, with the former showing also faster accumulation rate. Using data from civil registries and survey on graduates, we show that mobility plays a crucial role in explaining this accumulation gap. Urban areas of the North drain human capital from rural and urban locations of the South, but they lose graduates in favor of foreign countries. Urban movers are positively selected according to familiar background and secondary school grades. Moreover, in comparison to stayers, they are more likely to hold a university degree associated with better labour market prospects. Migrations of graduates are responsive to labour market conditions, to university supply, to house prices and-most importantly-to local human capital endowment.

Local Development, Urban Economies and Aggregate Growth

“…In other words, the positive knowledge externalities that do, in any case, exist in Italian urban areas are very marginally reflected on wages-espe-cially for the most skilled workers-and therefore the effects on migration of workers and accumulation of human capital are reduced. The paper by Ballatore and Mariani (2019) in this special issue examines the territorial differences in human capital endowment and the role of migration.…”

Pro-Environmental Determinants of Waste Separation: Does the Interaction of Human and Social Capital Matter? Evidence from Italian Provinces

“…The measure of school education is considered a good proxy to analyse increasing awareness of environmental issues in relation to waste management [79]. Moreover, the uneven presence of educated people is a typical feature of the Italian North-South dualism, where Southern provinces are those lagging behind more [26,80].…”

The Dynamics of Fund Absorption: Evaluating the Efficacy of EU Structural Funds in Mitigating Regional Inequalities—Calabrian Case

“…While labor mobility is traditionally seen as a mechanism for economic equilibrium, the Italian scenario deviates from this model due to the selective nature of the migration, which prioritizes highly qualified individuals. This selective emigration, as opposed to a homogenous distribution of workers, reinforces the dualistic nature of the Italian economy, exacerbating regional inequalities (Basile et al 2019;Ballatore and Mariani 2019). The intervention of public policies has, paradoxically, not mitigated but seemingly intensified these disparities, perpetuating a negative cycle of talent outflow and contributing to the competitive advantage of the northern regions (Coniglio and Prota 2017).…”