Regional Mobility and Spatial Inequality: Determinants of Spatial Labor Market Behavior Considering Firm- and Region-Specific Factors

Abstract

Regional disparities exist between states as well as within countries. In the Federal Republic of Germany, as a result of reunification, there are still considerable regional differences in terms of economic conditions. Local economic and structural circumstances affect individual employment opportunities and can be a motive for migration. Based on rational-economic approaches, the article examines the spatial labor market behavior of full-time employees subject to social security contributions, taking into account individual, firm-specific and regional characteristics. Workplace mobility is analyzed as a job move between the macro regions of North, South and East Germany. For this purpose, a linked employer-employee dataset (LIAB) from the “Institute for Employment Research” is used, supplemented by regional structural indicators (INKAR) at the level of the spatial planning regions. The analyses using binary logistic regression models show that transregional mobility especially depends on individual characteristics such as age and qualifications. Regarding regional features, it can be seen that the emigration tendency of younger employees increases with the local level of unemployment. Overall, the results do not indicate that there is a single-track brain drain from structurally weak regions. Nevertheless, these regions face a problem in age-specific migration patterns. The outflow of young workers weakens structurally poor areas directly and permanently.

30 Years of East-West Migration in Germany: A Synthesis of the Literature and Potential Directions for Future Research

“…In addition, less-skilled individuals in general are affected by regional unemployment rates to a greater extent than highskilled individuals, whereas more highly qualifi ed individuals are more willing to move over greater distances (Arntz 2010;Arntz et al 2014). These fi ndings suggest that mobility decisions are determined mostly by individual characteristics and labour market qualifi cations, and to a much lesser extent by macroeconomic factors (Ganesch 2018).…”

“…In addition, internal migration in the 1990s and 2000s intensifi ed the population losses of rural East Germany, which had already suffered from considerable outmigration to urban areas and particularly to East Berlin in the GDR (Schmidt/Tittel 1990;Wendt 1994Wendt , 1995. Since the early 2000s, East German cities have become increasingly attractive destinations for highly-skilled migrants from the East and the West (Ganesch 2018;Buch et al 2014). The East German countryside, however, continues to experience age-selective and gender-selective outmigration (Leibert 2016).…”

Determinants of Labor Mobility with Spatial Approach System Literature Review (SLR) Method in Boyolali City, Indonesia

“…However, the region has issues with age-based migratory trends. Areas with fundamental poverty suffering due to the direct and lasting effects of the flight of young workers (Ganesch, 2018).…”

Economic Transformation in Poland and Ukraine

“…The main purpose of the analyses carried out in Chapter 7 (Dykas P., Misiak T., Tokarski T.) is to present the spatial diversity of the situation on regional labor markets in Poland and Ukraine in 2004-2017, demonstrating its specificity (Blien, Wolf 2002;Ganesch 2018). These analyses relate to the diversity and dynamics of economic variables such as labor productivity, wage levels and unemployment rates.…”