Labor Force Migration, Unemployment and Job Turnover

Fields, Gary S.

doi:10.2307/1935872

Cited by 75 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In a similar fashion to UNT, the growth rate of regional GDP (DGDP) may serve as one determinant of overall job opportunities in a region. Fields (1976) argued that the unemployment rate is an imperfect indicator of regional labor market opportunities. Individuals living in regions with high internal labor market dynamics may have better prospects of finding a job than those living in regions with relatively sluggish labor markets.…”

Section: Theoretical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Labor Market Dynamics, Housing, and Migration

Hämäläinen

Böckerman

2004

Journal of Regional Science

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ABSTRACT. This study explores the impact of plant-level labor market dynamics and housing markets on gross migration flows. The internal and the external reorganizations of regional labor markets are shown to be related. An increase in internal turnover of jobs and workers in regional labor markets is found to increase net-migration. This effect arises mainly from a reduction in out-migration. Housing markets constitute constraints for migration. In particular, an increase in regional housing prices and a large share of owner-occupancy housing discourages net-migration to a region by reducing in-migration. In contrast, the out-migration rate remains largely unaffected by housing markets.

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Section: Theoretical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Labor Market Dynamics, Housing, and Migration

Hämäläinen

Böckerman

2004

Journal of Regional Science

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“…As a consequence, migration decisions do not depend on differentials in regional wage distributions alone but also hinge on the probability of receiving this wage, i.e. the probability of being employed as has already been discussed by Todaro (1969) and Fields (1976). As a consequence, differentials in regional income distributions that reflect both the employment and the wage distribution affect migration decisions and the selectivity of internal migrants.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 76%

Unequal Pay or Unequal Employment? What Drives the Skill-Composition of Labor Flows in Germany?

2011

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Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW.Download this ZEW Discussion Paper from our ftp server:http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp11074.pdf Das Wichtigste in Kürze Non-technical summaryRegional economic prospects to some extent seem to hinge on the region's human capital endowment and, thus, its ability to attract skilled labour. For any related policy, it is thus important to better understand the determinants of skill-selective migration.As the main selection mechanism, the existing literature suggests that individuals move to regions that best reward their skills in terms of wages. For this reason, skilled individuals with a choice between two regions that have the same average wage rate should prefer the region with the higher wage inequality, while unskilled individuals should avoid such regions. While this selection mechanism has been empirically confirmed for the US, evidence within the German context is much weaker. We suspect that regional wage rigidities resulting from central wage bargaining prevents a wage-based selection mechanism and, therefore, propose an additional employment-based selection mechanism. The main idea is that income differentials rather than wage differentials determine skill-selective migration. Since the probability of being employed is not equally distributed across the workforce, but tends to increase with the skill level, unskilled individuals should avoid regions with a high employment inequality.In fact, an extended framework predicts skilled workers to be disproportionately attracted to regions with higher mean wages and employment rates as well as higher regional wage and employment inequalities. We test these predictions for gross labour flows between 27 regions in Germany. For this purpose, we estimate the observable skill level of an average labour migrant for each gross flow across a ten year period. In addition, we estimate the parameters of the regional wage and employment distributions for each region and year. Using both a labour flow fixed effects model as well as a GMM estimator, the findings suggest that regional differentials in the employment distribution turn out to be important. In particular, a region attracts an increasingly skilled inflow of migrants, the higher is its average employment rate (i.e. the lower its unemployment rate). The same is true for an increasing employment inequality. The less equal employment chances are spread across the regional workforce, the more a region attracts an increasingly skilled inflow of migrants. In contras...

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“…Fourth, many migrants in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America are also ethnic minorities who live on the margins of society, meaning that taxpayer money is unlikely to be directed toward their concerns. A variety of cultural, social, epidemiological, political, and economic factors can influence migration decisions (Curran and Saguy 2001;De Jong and Gardner 1981;Fields 1976;Muth 1971;Portes and Sensenbrenner 1993;Sassen 1988;Stark and Bloom 1985;Todaro 1980). Socio-cultural norms dictate marriage patterns with respect to both age and post-marital residence rules.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…And, of course, the importance of economics cannot be overemphasized in migration decisions. Migrants in poor rural areas may be drawn to relatively wealthy urban areas (Fields 1976;Muth 1971;Stark 1991;Todaro 1980). Even within relatively homogeneous rich or poor regions there can be spatial heterogeneity in resources, potentially leading to micro-level movement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%