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

28 Pages Posted: 27 Sep 2012

See all articles by Stefan Bauernschuster

Stefan Bauernschuster

University of Passau - Business Administration and Economics; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Oliver Falck

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Department Human Capital and Innovation

Stephan Heblich

University of Stirling - Department of Economics

Jens Suedekum

University of Duisburg-Essen

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 26, 2012

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: migration, culture, distance, human capital, risk attitudes

JEL Classification: J610, R230, D810

Suggested Citation

Bauernschuster, Stefan and Bauernschuster, Stefan and Falck, Oliver and Heblich, Stephan and Suedekum, Jens, Why are Educated and Risk-Loving Persons More Mobile Across Regions? (September 26, 2012). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 3938, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2152267 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2152267

Stefan Bauernschuster (Contact Author)

University of Passau - Business Administration and Economics ( email )

University of Passau
Innstrasse 27
D-94030 Passau
Germany

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, 81679
Germany

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Oliver Falck

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Department Human Capital and Innovation ( email )

Poschingerstr. 5
Munich, 81679
Germany

Stephan Heblich

University of Stirling - Department of Economics ( email )

Stirling, Scotland FK9 4LA
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.management.stir.ac.uk/people/economics/academic-staff/dr-stephan-heblich

Jens Suedekum

University of Duisburg-Essen

Lotharstrasse 1
Duisburg, 47048
Germany

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