Why do people migrate?: an empirical analysis of the Argentinean case

ALEJANDRA DANIELA CRISTINA

Montevideo

Encuentro; Second EU-ALFA Meeting on Trade and Development: Theory and Policy Issues; 2005

Universidad de la República y Universiteit Antwerpen

Labour mobility among di¤erent regions within a country is known as one of the mechanisms that can contribute to the adjustment of regional labour markets. This will only occur on the condition that the individual’s responses to labour earnings di¤erentials are sensitive enough. Whether the individuals respond or not to regional wage di¤eren- tials is an issue that has been dealt with by many US and European studies. For Latin America, however, the topic remains underdevel- oped. The central purpose of this paper is to provide with empirical ev- idence for Argentina concerning the analysis of the determinants of the individual’s decision to migrate, and in particular, the response of the individuals to regional wage di¤erentials. A random e¤ects logit for panel data is the model chosen for mod- elling the migration decision, which depends both on personal and regional characteristics. The real expected income in di¤erent desti- nations was found to signi…cantly in‡uence the probability of migrat- ing. In addition, the regional amenities are important determinants as well.