Why Are Educated and Risk-Loving Persons More Mobile Across Regions?

Stefan Bauernschuster, Oliver Falck, Stephan Heblich and Jens Suedekum

No 6860, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: human capital; distance; culture; migration; risk attitudes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 J61 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2012-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2014, 98, 56-69

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Related works:
Journal Article: Why are educated and risk-loving persons more mobile across regions? (2014)
Working Paper: Why are educated and risk-loving persons more mobile across regions? (2013)
Working Paper: Why are Educated and Risk-Loving Persons More Mobile Across Regions (2012)
Working Paper: Why Are Educated and Risk-Loving Persons More Mobile across Regions? (2012)
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