Why are educated and risk-loving persons more mobile across regions?

Arbeitspapier

Why are better educated and more risk-friendly persons more mobile across regions? To answer this question, we use micro data on internal migrants from the German Socio- Economic Panel (SOEP) 2000-2006 and merge this information with a unique proxy for region-pair-specific cultural distances across German regions constructed from historical local dialect patterns. Our findings indicate that risk-loving and skilled people are more mobile over longer distances because they are more willing to cross cultural boundaries and move to regions that are culturally different from their homes. Other types of distance-related migration costs cannot explain the lower distance sensitivity of educated and risk-loving individuals.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 6860

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers ; Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics ; Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
• Subject: migration ; culture ; distance ; human capital ; risk attitudes ; Binnenwanderung ; Risikofreude ; Bildungsniveau ; Kulturelle Identität ; Entfernung ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bauernschuster, Stefan ; Falck, Oliver ; Heblich, Stephan ; Südekum, Jens
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/67231
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET