Do earnings by college major affect graduate migration?

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S Do Earnings by College Major AffectIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. ABSTRACT Do Earnings by College Major Affect Graduate Migration?College graduates are considerably more mobile than non-graduates, and previous literature suggests that the difference is at least partially attributable to college graduates being more responsive to employment opportunities in other areas. However, there exist considerable differences in migration rates by college major that have gone largely unexplained. This paper uses microdata from the American Community Survey to examine how the migration decisions of young college graduates are affected by earnings in their college major. Results indicate that higher major-specific earnings in an individual's state of birth reduce outmigration suggesting that college graduates are attracted toward areas that especially reward the specific type of human capital that they possess.JEL Classification: J24, J61, R23

Returns to College Majors Across Large Metropolitan Areas

“…Thus, it follows that workers with certain college majors may migrate to those metropolitan areas that yield the highest returns for their college major. Consistent with this idea, Winters () finds that higher major‐specific earnings in an individual's state of birth reduces out‐of‐state migration; Gottlieb and Joseph () find that science and technology graduates migrate to high human capital locations; and Brown and Scott () find that college graduates are more likely to move to areas that specialize in their industry.…”

In-State College Enrollment and Later Life Location Decisions

“…Previous literature has found that exposure to a state merit aid program increases the probability of later life residence in one's birth state and suggested that this may be partially driven by merit aid effects on birth-state college enrollment (Hickman 2009, Hawley andRork 2013;Sjoquist and Winters 2014;Fitzpatrick and Jones 2016). However, merit aid may have other effects, some of which influence future geographic mobility (Sjoquist and Winters 2015a;Winters 2017). Additionally, merit program characteristics differ across states, and merit program effects on in-state enrollment and later life residence may differ across states also (Sjoquist and Winters 2014).…”

Are they coming back? The mobility of university graduates in switzerland

“…Another strand of literature examine implications for university funding in connection with taxes and tuition fees (Demange et al 2014;Gérard and Uebelmesser 2014;Haupt et al 2016;Haussen ans Uebelmesser 2016;Winters 2017). In a decentralised system with publicly funded universities, student and graduate mobility leads to high inefficiencies.…”