Self-Selection and the Returns to Geographic Mobility: What Can Be Learned from the German Reunification 'Experiment'

Arbeitspapier

This paper investigates the causal effect of geographic labour mobility on income. The returns to German East-West migration and commuting are estimated exploiting the structure of centrally planned economies and a "natural experiment" of German reunification for identification. I find that migration premium is insignificantly different from zero, the returns for commuters equal to four percent of the mean of the total income, and the local average treatment effects for compliers are insignificant. In addition, estimation results suggest no positive self-selection for migrants, and some evidence of positive self-selection for commuters. Based on these results, moving West does not appear to be a highly rewarded option in Germany.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: DIW Discussion Papers ; No. 580

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; International Migration ; Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion ; Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
• Thema: returns to geographic mobility ; causality ; treatment effects

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Zaiceva, Anzelika
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (wo): Berlin
• (wann): 2006

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/18473
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ