Does migration arbitrage regional labor market differentials?

"This paper examines the determinants of regional migration [in the United States] in the 1980s using a place-to-place migration model in which migration flows depend upon the relative economic opportunities in the origin and destination regions. Using the results of the model, we then examine the potential role for migration in diffusing the economic pressures associated with disparate regional economic growth. Although the results reinforce the notion that divergent regional growth was an impetus to migration in the 1980s, estimates of the employment status of movers suggest that the true effects of migration on unemployment differentials may be quite small."     

Differences in Opportunities? Wage,Employment and House‐Price Effects on Migration*

Most empirical studies of individual migration choice analyse factors associated with out‐migration from an origin location. In contrast, we model the migration decision within the context of potential destinations, combining British panel data over the period 1992–2008 with other data sources. Contrary to earlier micro studies, we show that differences in house prices levels (but not growth) are important determinants of household migration for homeowners. Unemployed individuals respond to regional differences in expected individual wages, whereas the employed are more sensitive to employment opportunities. Our evidence is consistent with partners of heads of households being tied migrants.     

INVESTMENT PATTERNS AND THE COMPETITIVENESS OF GREEK REGIONS

This paper aims at mapping and analyzing the determinants of industrial activity in Greek regions in order to assess current investment patterns. For this purpose, we estimate a conditional logit model of 226 new established firms for 1996 and 1997. Results give interesting insights that are likely of particular importance to regional policy makers. Noteworthy is the spatial concentration of firms in different prefectures while the large metropolitan cities, Athens and Thessalonica, although with declining shares, prevail as the dominant hosts. European regional policy seems to enhance firms'entry via its effect on economic development variables, in contrast with the Greek Development Law, which turns out non-influential.     

Does land use planning shape regional economies? A simultaneous analysis of housing supply,internal migration and local employment growth in the Netherlands

Why has job growth over the past decades been weaker in the Dutch Randstad area than in surrounding regions? In a simultaneous equations analysis, we find that employment has adjusted to the regional supply of labour. Net internal migration was predominantly determined by regional housing supply, and not by employment growth. Growth of the regional housing stock appeared insensitive to changes in the number of people and jobs. This lack of responsiveness to demand conditions is consistent with the presence of strong restrictions on residential development near the main Dutch cities, suggesting that the current regional distribution of economic activity in the Netherlands reflects land use planning decisions.     

Industry Agglomerations and Employment Change in Non-Metropolitan Areas

The purpose of this study is to determine the role of industry agglomerations on industry-level employment change in non-metro areas of the United States. Regression analysis of cross-sectional data is used to estimate the determinants of non-metro 1981–1992 employment change for ten two-digit SIC manufacturing industries. Industry agglomerations in metro and non-metro areas are identified using cluster analysis. Area characteristics included in the regression equations are diversity of the local economy, industry mix, average plant size and availability of urbanization economies. The findings indicate that industry agglomerations were associated with both larger employment gains in areas with growing industry employment and larger employment losses for areas with declining employment. Neither regional specialization in the industry nor nearby metro agglomerations were significant determinants of employment change in non-metro areas.     

The spatial structure of Latin American cities

"Using published census data, metropolitan area population and employment statistics are constructed for several large Latin American cities in 1950, 1960, and 1970, and compared to similar statistics from selected North American cities. The Latin cities are experiencing decentralization of population and some decentralization of employment. Overall population density patterns of large Latin cities resemble those in older North American cities; newer North American cities have lower densities and are much more decentralized than Latin cities. High-status groups are somewhat concentrated in the central cities of Latin American metropolitan areas, but their concentrations there are declining."     

Trade, migration and regional unemployment

A by now large literature in regional economics has greatly improved our understanding of the determinants of the observed spatial disparities in productivity. However, this literature neglects what seems to be a robust and persistent fact accompanying regional productivity differences: high productivity regions also have lower unemployment than low productivity regions. In this paper, we set out a model in the New Economic Geography (NEG)/job search tradition to explore the theoretical determinants of this fact. We find that the same forces producing regional agglomeration and productivity differences also generate persistent unemployment disparities. Moreover, we highlight a contrast between the short-run and long-run effects of migration on regional unemployment. In particular, migration from the periphery to the core may reduce unemployment disparities in the short-run, but exacerbates them in the long-run.     

Bracing for survival

As health care continues to move toward smaller, more consolidated support services, materiel managers will face constricted promotion and employment opportunities. Flexibility and a willingness to embrace change as the occasion for personal and professional advancement will be two hallmarks of success. This article focuses on outsourcing and integrated delivery networks by discussing the challenges and opportunities they present.     

Spatial distribution of the specialization of arts

The hypothesis is that the major source of concentration of arts in different regions is due to agglomeration effects of specialized talents, city size, income, and quality of life. Twenty-nine large metropolitan areas are ranked and assessed for enhancing the climate for arts activity. Data on metropolitan areas in the United States on cost of living, transportation, employment, education, climate, crime, health care, recreation, city size, and per capita income are used as explanations for predominance of art in the 29 metropolitan areas. The results indicate that cities with larger populations and higher per capita income have greater concentrations of artistic activity. Other explanatory variables include factors associated with the quality of life. (JEL RIO, R23)     

农林高校毕业生涉农领域就业的路径研究

众所周知,我国是农业大国,但农业发展仍存在很多问题,与发达国家相比差距较大,究其原因主要是人才匮乏。近年来,我国农林高校毕业生就业主要以市场配置为主,由于各地区发展客观上存在巨大差距,大量毕业生流向中东部地区大城市或中心城市,而以农业为主的中小城市、城镇乡村却无人问津,其就业出现结构性失衡。面临这种现实情况,如何使农林高校毕业生成为现代农业发展亟需的农业人力资本,引导其充实到农村发挥专业之所长,成为当前农业发展的一个重要命题。     

Economic and spatial determinants of interregional migration in Kazakhstan

In this paper we analyze economic and spatial determinants of interregional migration in Kazakhstan using quarterly panel data on region to region migration in 2008–2010. The main contribution of the paper relates to the ethnic divide in Kazakhstan, which is the home of a big ethnic Russian community, adding to the scarce literature on ethnic differences in migration patterns. Against this background we investigate whether the determinants of interregional mobility depend on ethnicity. In line with traditional economic theory we find that migration is determined by economic factors, first of all wage. As predicted by gravity arguments, mobility is larger between more populated regions and distance has a strong negative impact on migration, indicating high migration-related costs. Most likely caused by stronger family ties and kinship bonds, the deterring effect of distance is higher for ethnic Kazakhs.     

Overeducation, regional labor markets, and spatial flexibility

For most workers, access to suitable employment is severely restricted by the fact that they look for jobs in the regional labor market rather than the global one. In this paper we analyze how macrolevel opportunities (regional market characteristics) and microlevel restrictions (the extent to which job searchers are restricted to the regional market) can help to explain the phenomenon of overeducation. We use a two-step procedure to control selective access to employment. The results show that the size of the labor market is an important factor in avoiding overeducation.     

Strategic Planning and Institutional Collective Action in Italian Cities

Long-run and sustainable development is a main source of concern for contemporary cities. To address this issue, strategic plans have been introduced in several cities. In this paper, we investigate the determinants of strategic plan adoption in Italian cities by relying on the institutional collective action theory which predicts that collaboration among institutions is more likely to occur in areas with larger social capital stock and where public bodies share a common history of collaboration. Our econometric evidence shows that a larger stock of social capital and a history of past institutional collaboration increases the probability of adopting a strategic plan, confirming the central prediction of the institutional collective action theory.     

Demand substitution across US cities: Observable similarity and home price correlation

This paper studies demand substitution in the context of US cities. Demand substitution occurs when individuals on the margin between certain city pairs affect demand patterns in the aggregate, causing certain cities to be better substitutes than others. Using a discrete model of city choice, I derive two predictions for migration flows and test them empirically using city-to-city migration data from the US Census. I show that cities which are similar on a variety of observable measures have higher levels of gross migration flows in the steady state and higher net migration flows in response to labor demand shocks. Finally, I propose pairwise correlation in metropolitan home prices as a price-based measure of substitutability and show that it contains substantial predictive power for migration flows relative to observable similarity.     

A Dynamic Approach to Population Change in Central Cities and Their Suburbs, 1980–1990

A bstract .   With the growing concern over the causal relationship between crime and population change, this study readdresses the importance of economic organization in studying population change in a metropolitan area. This study investigates the dynamic influences of internal and external factors on population change in either central cities or their suburbs. The units of analysis in this study are the 142 U.S. central cities and their suburban rings of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in 1980 and 1990. Two change models (semi-difference and mixed-difference models) are used to predict population change. The results demonstrate that population change in one territory of a metropolitan area is affected by crime and employment opportunity in both locations of a metropolitan area.     

The effects of grants and wages on municipal labour demand

In this paper we investigate the determinants of municipal labour demand in Sweden 1988–1995. Utilising a major grant reform in 1993, through which a switch from mainly targeted to mainly general central government grants occurred, we are able to identify which type of grants that have the largest effects on municipal employment. We find a larger municipal employment elasticity with respect to grants before the reform, which we interpret as evidence that general grants have less employment effects than specific ones. We further find a short run wage elasticity of approximately −0.5 and a long run ditto of approximately −0.9, and a quite sluggish adjustment process: only 60% of the desired change in municipal employment is implemented in the first year.     

Sectoral sources of metropolitan growth

The paper proposes a method for identifying sectoral sources of metropolitan employment growth The key feature of the VAR is the set of (over)identifying restrictions which do not require a causal ordering to be developed among industries to create orthogonal sectoral shocks. The simulations for four cities indicate that local sectoral shocks are more important than national counterparts, and that among local shocks, the overall evidence indicates that manufacturing, service and public sector employment shocks account for a substantial portion of employment growth variation, a conclusion that seems roughly consistent with export-oriented models of metropolitan growth.     

Metropolitan suburbanization and central city problems

This paper is an empirical study of effects of central city problems on population and employment suburbanization. It is widely believed that high crime, high taxes, and large minority groups in central cities are important causes of rapid suburbanization of U.S. metropolitan areas. A large set of density functions is estimated for population and employment in U.S. metropolitan areas in 1960 and 1970. Thus, relative central city and suburban measures of crime, taxes, etc., are used in an interactive model to explain population and employment suburbanization. It is found that only racial minorities have an effect on suburbanization.     

Property Taxation and Human Migration

A bstract . Various factors explain human migration as it relates to the growth of cities. Some are closely related to the location of modem industry: people follow jobs or at least are attracted by better economic opportunities. Cities also attract population by a quality of life otherwise unavailable. Some move to particular cities for personal reasons, etc. But for the United States, at least, and for White migrants, two factors are also important in affecting migration decisions: White migrants are attracted by higher educational spending and lower property tax burdens relative to areas with lower spending and higher burdens. White migrants in 1960-70 apparently preferred areas with mild or warm climates but were less sensitive to income differences.     

The interaction of residential segregation and employment discrimination

This paper seeks to disentangle the impact of residential segregation from that of employment discrimination in determining black employment share. The major finding is that distance of a workplace from the main ghetto is one of the strongest and most significant determinants of both changes over time and levels of the racial composition of the workforce. This paper presents evidence of more heterogeneous micro labor supply within SMSAs than has usually been recognized for policy purposes. Comparing Chicago with Los Angeles, we find that distance from the ghetto has a stronger impact in Chicago, and that this effect increased during the late 1970s. By contrast, residential segregation is relatively less important in determining workplace demographics in Los Angeles, despite its rudimentary public transit system and prototypical job dispersion. In both cities, residential segregation strongly influences black employment patterns and limits the efficacy of efforts to integrate the workplace.