The Impact of College Graduation on Geographic Mobility: Identifying Education Using Multiple Components of Vietnam Draft Risk
Abstract
College-educated workers are twice as likely as high school graduates to make lasting long-distance moves, but little is known about the role of college itself in determining geographic mobility. Unobservable characteristics related to selection into college might also drive the relationship between college education and geographic mobility. We explore this question using a number of methods to analyze both the 1980 Census and longitudinal sources. We conclude that the causal impact of college completion on subsequent mobility is large. We introduce new instrumental variables that allow us to identify educational attainment and veteran status separately in a sample of men whose college decisions were exogenously influenced by their draft risk during the Vietnam War. Our preferred IV estimates imply that graduation increases the probability that a man resides outside his birth state by approximately 35 percentage points, a magnitude nearly twice as large as the OLS migration differential between college and high school graduates. IV estimates of graduation’s impact on total distance moved are even larger, with IV estimates that exceed OLS considerably. We provide evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979 that our large IV estimates are plausible and likely explained by heterogeneous treatment effects. Finally, we provide some suggestive evidence on the mechanisms driving the relationship between college completion and mobility.Download Info
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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 3432.Length: 64 pages
Date of creation: Apr 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3432
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Related research
Keywords: geographic mobility; education; college graduates; internal migration; instrumental variables;Other versions of this item:
- Ofer Malamud & Abigail Wozniak, 2008. "The Impact of College Graduation on Geographic Mobility: Identifying Education Using Multiple Components of Vietnam Draft Risk," Working Papers 0811, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago.
- J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
- J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education and Research Institutions
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2008-04-21 (All new papers)
- NEP-DEV-2008-04-21 (Development)
- NEP-EDU-2008-04-21 (Education)
- NEP-HRM-2008-04-21 (Human Capital & Human Resource Management)
- NEP-LAB-2008-04-21 (Labour Economics)
- NEP-MIG-2008-04-21 (Economics of Human Migration)
- NEP-URE-2008-04-21 (Urban & Real Estate Economics)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Wozniak, Abigail, 2006. "Educational Differences in the Migration Responses of Young Workers to Local Labor Market Conditions," IZA Discussion Papers 1954, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Gallo, Fredrik, 2006.
"Resisting Economic Integration when Industry Location is Uncertain,"
Working Papers
2006:22, Lund University, Department of Economics.
- Gallo, Fredrik, 2010. "Resisting economic integration when industry location is uncertain," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 467-482, April.
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"The Impact of Education on Unemployment Incidence and Re-employment Success: Evidence from the U.S. Labour Market,"
IZA Discussion Papers
5572, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Riddell, W. Craig & Song, Xueda, 2011. "The impact of education on unemployment incidence and re-employment success: Evidence from the U.S. labour market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 453-463, August.
- Riddell, W. Craig & Song, Xueda, 2011. "The Impact of Education on Unemployment Incidence and Re-employment Success: Evidence from the U.S. Labour Market," CLSRN Working Papers clsrn_admin-2011-18, UBC Department of Economics, revised 27 Jul 2011.
- Peter McHenry, 2012.
"The Relationship between Location Choice and Earnings Inequality,"
Working Papers
118, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
- Peter McHenry, 2011. "The Relationship between Location Choice and Earnings Inequality," Working Papers 112, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
- Stephen Machin & Kjell G. Salvanes & Panu Pelkonen, 2012.
"Education And Mobility,"
Journal of the European Economic Association,
European Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 417-450, 04.
- Stephen Machin & Panu Pelkonen & Kjell Salvanes, 2008. "Education and Mobility," CEE Discussion Papers 0100, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
- Machin, Stephen & Pelkonen, Panu & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2008. "Education and Mobility," IZA Discussion Papers 3845, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Matthew J. Notowidigdo, 2011.
"The Incidence of Local Labor Demand Shocks,"
NBER Working Papers
17167, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- Matthew J. Notowidigdo, 2011. "The Incidence of Local Labor Demand Shocks," 2011 Meeting Papers 629, Society for Economic Dynamics.
- Böckerman, Petri & Haapanen, Mika, 2010.
"The effect of education on migration: Evidence from school reform,"
MPRA Paper
27629, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Petri Böckerman & Mika Haapanen, 2011. "The effect of education on migration: evidence from school reform," ERSA conference papers ersa10p994, European Regional Science Association.
- Brad J. Hershbein, 2013. "Worker Signals among New College Graduates: The Role of Selectivity and GPA," Upjohn Working Papers and Journal Articles 13-190, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
- Peter McHenry, 2010. "The Geographic Distribution of Human Capital: Measurement of Contributing Mechanisms," Working Papers 92, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
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