IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jregsc/v54y2014i1p33-60.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Attracts Knowledge Workers? The Role Of Space And Social Networks

Author

Listed:
  • Ernest Miguélez
  • Rosina Moreno

Abstract

type="main"> The aim of this paper is to identify the determinants of the geographical mobility of skilled individuals, such as inventors, across European regions. Among a large number of variables, we focus on the role of social proximity between inventors’ communities. We use a control function approach to address the endogenous nature of networks, and zero-inflated negative binomial models to accommodate our estimations to the count nature of the dependent variable and the high number of zeros it contains. Our results highlight the importance of physical proximity, job opportunities, social networks, as well as other relational variables in mediating this phenomenon.

Suggested Citation

  • Ernest Miguélez & Rosina Moreno, 2014. "What Attracts Knowledge Workers? The Role Of Space And Social Networks," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 33-60, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jregsc:v:54:y:2014:i:1:p:33-60
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/jors.12069
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Tobias D. Ketterer, 2012. "Do Local Amenities Affect The Appeal Of Regions In Europe For Migrants?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 535-561, October.
    2. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Riccardo Crescenzi, 2008. "Mountains in a flat world: why proximity still matters for the location of economic activity," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(3), pages 371-388.
    3. Philip McCann & Jacques Poot & Lynda Sanderson, 2010. "Migration, relationship capital and international travel: theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 361-387, May.
    4. Ciccone, Antonio & Hall, Robert E, 1996. "Productivity and the Density of Economic Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 54-70, March.
    5. Jesse M. Shapiro, 2006. "Smart Cities: Quality of Life, Productivity, and the Growth Effects of Human Capital," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(2), pages 324-335, May.
    6. Glaeser, Edward L. & Scheinkman, JoseA. & Shleifer, Andrei, 1995. "Economic growth in a cross-section of cities," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 117-143, August.
    7. Nakajima, Ryo & Tamura, Ryuichi & Hanaki, Nobuyuki, 2010. "The effect of collaboration network on inventors' job match, productivity and tenure," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 723-734, August.
    8. Matthieu Crozet, 2004. "Do migrants follow market potentials? An estimation of a new economic geography model," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 439-458, August.
    9. Tabuchi, Takatoshi & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2002. "Taste heterogeneity, labor mobility and economic geography," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 155-177, October.
    10. Stephen Gibbons & Henry G. Overman, 2012. "Mostly Pointless Spatial Econometrics?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 172-191, May.
    11. Edward L. Glaeser, Jed Kolko, and Albert Saiz, 2001. "Consumer city," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 27-50, January.
    12. Graves, Philip E. & Linneman, Peter D., 1979. "Household migration: Theoretical and empirical results," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 383-404, July.
    13. Docquier Frédéric & Rapoport Hillel, 2009. "Documenting the Brain Drain of “La Crème de la Crème”: Three Case-Studies on International Migration at the Upper Tail of the Education Distribution," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 229(6), pages 679-705, December.
    14. Rappaport, Jordan, 2007. "Moving to nice weather," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 375-398, May.
    15. Lewer, Joshua J. & Van den Berg, Hendrik, 2008. "A gravity model of immigration," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 164-167, April.
    16. Ernest Miguélez & Rorina Moreno, 2012. "“What attracts knowledge workers? The role of space, social connections, institutions, jobs and amenities”," AQR Working Papers 201203, University of Barcelona, Regional Quantitative Analysis Group, revised Feb 2012.
    17. Stefano Breschi & Francesco Lissoni, 2009. "Mobility of skilled workers and co-invention networks: an anatomy of localized knowledge flows," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 439-468, July.
    18. Graves, Philip E., 1980. "Migration and climate," MPRA Paper 19916, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Jeffrey H. Dorfman & Mark D. Partridge & Hamilton Galloway, 2011. "Do Natural Amenities Attract High-tech Jobs? Evidence From a Smoothed Bayesian Spatial Model," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(4), pages 397-422, April.
    20. Partridge, Mark D. & Rickman, Dan S., 2003. "The waxing and waning of regional economies: the chicken-egg question of jobs versus people," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 76-97, January.
    21. Cristiano Perugini & Marcello Signorelli, 2010. "Youth labour market performance in European regions," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 151-185, May.
    22. Paul Cheshire & Stefano Magrini, 2006. "Population growth in European cities: Weather matters - but only nationally," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 23-37.
    23. Dahl, Michael S. & Sorenson, Olav, 2010. "The migration of technical workers," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 33-45, January.
    24. W. Mark Brown & Darren M. Scott, 2012. "Human Capital Location Choice: Accounting For Amenities And Thick Labor Markets," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(5), pages 787-808, December.
    25. Rappaport, Jordan, 2004. "Why are population flows so persistent?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 554-580, November.
    26. Charlotta Mellander & Richard Florida, 2011. "Creativity, talent, and regional wages in Sweden," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 46(3), pages 637-660, June.
    27. Alessandra Faggian & M. Rose Olfert & Mark D. Partridge, 2011. "Inferring regional well-being from individual revealed preferences: the 'voting with your feet' approach," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 5(1), pages 163-180.
    28. Larry A. Sjaastad, 1962. "The Costs and Returns of Human Migration," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 80-93, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    29. Partridge, Mark D. & Rickman, Dan S., 1999. "Which comes first, jobs or people? An analysis of the recent stylized facts," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 117-123, July.
    30. Mark D. Partridge, 2010. "The duelling models: NEG vs amenity migration in explaining US engines of growth," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(3), pages 513-536, August.
    31. Jarno Hoekman & Koen Frenken & Frank Oort, 2009. "The geography of collaborative knowledge production in Europe," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 43(3), pages 721-738, September.
    32. Roback, Jennifer, 1982. "Wages, Rents, and the Quality of Life," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(6), pages 1257-1278, December.
    33. Bianca Biagi & Alessandra Faggian & Philip McCann, 2011. "Long and Short Distance Migration in Italy: The Role of Economic, Social and Environmental Characteristics," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 111-131.
    34. Mario Maggioni & Teodora Uberti, 2009. "Knowledge networks across Europe: which distance matters?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 43(3), pages 691-720, September.
    35. Allen J. Scott, 2010. "Jobs or amenities? Destination choices of migrant engineers in the USA," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(1), pages 43-63, March.
    36. J. M. C. Santos Silva & Silvana Tenreyro, 2006. "The Log of Gravity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 641-658, November.
    37. Anne-Célia Disdier & Keith Head, 2008. "The Puzzling Persistence of the Distance Effect on Bilateral Trade," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(1), pages 37-48, February.
    38. Emmanouil Tranos & Peter Nijkamp, 2013. "The Death Of Distance Revisited: Cyber-Place, Physical And Relational Proximities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 855-873, December.
    39. Daniel P. McMillen, 2012. "Perspectives On Spatial Econometrics: Linear Smoothing With Structured Models," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 192-209, May.
    40. Schaefer Kurt C & Anderson Michael A & Ferrantino Michael J, 2008. "Monte Carlo Appraisals of Gravity Model Specifications," Global Economy Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-26, February.
    41. Adam B. Jaffe & Manuel Trajtenberg & Rebecca Henderson, 1993. "Geographic Localization of Knowledge Spillovers as Evidenced by Patent Citations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 108(3), pages 577-598.
    42. Howard J. Wall, 2001. "articles: Voting with your feet in the United Kingdom: Using cross-migration rates to estimate relative living standards," Papers in Regional Science, Springer;Regional Science Association International, vol. 80(1), pages 1-23.
    43. Santos Silva, J.M.C. & Tenreyro, Silvana, 2010. "On the existence of the maximum likelihood estimates in Poisson regression," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 310-312, May.
    44. Picci, Lucio, 2010. "The internationalization of inventive activity: A gravity model using patent data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1070-1081, October.
    45. Anjomani, Ardeshir & Hariri, Vida, 1992. "Migration Stock and the Issue of Competing and Complementary Flows in United States Interstate Migration," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 5(2), pages 87-100, April.
    46. Stefano Breschi & Camilla Lenzi & Francesco Lissoni & Andrea Vezzulli, 2010. "The Geography of Knowledge Spillovers: The Role of Inventors’ Mobility Across Firms and in Space," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.),The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 16, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    47. Alessandra Faggian & Philip McCann, 2009. "Human capital, graduate migration and innovation in British regions," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 33(2), pages 317-333, March.
    48. Fry, J. & Fry, T.R.L. & Peter, M.W., 1999. "Inter-Regional Migration in Australia: an Applied Economic Analysis," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 5/99, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    49. John V. Winters, 2011. "Why Are Smart Cities Growing? Who Moves And Who Stays," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 253-270, May.
    50. Vuong, Quang H, 1989. "Likelihood Ratio Tests for Model Selection and Non-nested Hypotheses," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(2), pages 307-333, March.
    51. Paul D. Gottlieb & George Joseph, 2006. "College‐To‐Work Migration Of Technology Graduates And Holders Of Doctorates Within The United States," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 627-659, October.
    52. Weinberg, Bruce A., 2011. "Developing science: Scientific performance and brain drains in the developing world," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 95-104, May.
    53. William H. Greene, 1994. "Accounting for Excess Zeros and Sample Selection in Poisson and Negative Binomial Regression Models," Working Papers 94-10, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    54. Alessandra Faggian & Philip McCann, 2006. "Human capital flows and regional knowledge assets: a simultaneous equation approach," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(3), pages 475-500, July.
    55. Michael Storper & Allen J. Scott, 2009. "Rethinking human capital, creativity and urban growth," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 147-167, March.
    56. Greenwood, Michael J. & Hunt, Gary L., 1989. "Jobs versus amenities in the analysis of metropolitan migration," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 1-16, January.
    57. Terza, Joseph V. & Basu, Anirban & Rathouz, Paul J., 2008. "Two-stage residual inclusion estimation: Addressing endogeneity in health econometric modeling," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 531-543, May.
    58. Graves, Philip E., 1976. "A reexamination of migration, economic opportunity, and the quality of life," MPRA Paper 19918, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    59. Greenwood, Michael J, 1975. "Research on Internal Migration in the United States: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 397-433, June.
    60. repec:hoo:wpaper:e-95-4 is not listed on IDEAS
    61. Stefano Breschi & Camilla Lenzi, 2010. "Spatial patterns of inventors' mobility: Evidence on US urban areas," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(2), pages 235-250, June.
    62. Deborah Strumsky & Jean-Claude Thill, 2013. "Profiling U.S. Metropolitan Regions By Their Social Research Networks And Regional Economic Performance," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 813-833, December.
    63. Schwartz, Aba, 1973. "Interpreting the Effect of Distance on Migration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(5), pages 1153-1169, Sept.-Oct.
    64. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Winters, John V., 2014. "STEM graduates, human capital externalities, and wages in the U.S," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 190-198.
    2. Clément Gorin, 2016. "Patterns and determinants of inventors' mobility across European urban areas," Working Papers halshs-01313086, HAL.
    3. Celia Melguizo & Vicente Royuela, 2017. "“What drives migration moves across urban areas in Spain? Evidence from the Great Recession”," IREA Working Papers 201717, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Oct 2017.
    4. John V. Winters, 2020. "In-State College Enrollment and Later Life Location Decisions," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 55(4), pages 1400-1426.
    5. Cattaneo, Mattia & Malighetti, Paolo & Paleari, Stefano & Redondi, Renato, 2016. "The role of the air transport service in interregional long-distance students’ mobility in Italy," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 66-82.
    6. Jewell, Sarah & Kazakis, Pantelis, 2017. "On the Role of Migration on the Satisfaction of European Researchers: Evidence from MORE2," MPRA Paper 86149, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 11 Apr 2018.
    7. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2018. "Effects of Distance and Borders on International and Interregional Tourist Flows: A micro-gravity analysis," Discussion papers 18021, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    8. Richard E. Baldwin & Simon J. Evenett, 2015. "Value Creation And Trade In 21st Century Manufacturing," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 31-50, January.
    9. Drivas, Kyriakos & Economidou, Claire & Karamanis, Dimitrios & Sanders, Mark, 2020. "Mobility of highly skilled individuals and local innovation activity," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. Dorner, Matthias & Harhoff, Dietmar & Hinz, Tina & Hoisl, Karin & Bender, Stefan, 2016. "Social ties for labor market access - Lessons from the migration of East German inventors," IAB Discussion Paper 201641, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    11. Roberta Capello & Camilla Lenzi, 2019. "The nexus between inventors’ mobility and regional growth across European regions," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 457-486, December.
    12. Yasuhiro Sato & Masaaki Toma, 2017. "Transition of Spatial Distribution of Human Capital in　Japan," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1046, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    13. Winters, John V., 2014. "The Production and Stock of College Graduates for U.S. States," IZA Discussion Papers 8730, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Camilla Lenzi & Giovanni Perucca, 2020. "The nexus between innovation and wellbeing across the EU space: What role for urbanisation?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(2), pages 323-349, February.
    15. Xiyao Xiang & Wei-Chiao Huang, 2019. "Does Distance Affect the Role of Nonlocal Subsidiaries on Cluster Firms’ Innovation? An Empirical Investigation on Chinese Biotechnology Cluster Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, Open Access Journal, vol. 11(23), pages 1-18, November.
    16. Hyun-kyung Lee & Hong-bae Kim, 2019. "Regional preferences for the living environment and mobility of researchers and general workers: the case of Korea," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 62(1), pages 169-186, February.
    17. Camboim, Guilherme Freitas & Zawislak, Paulo Antônio & Pufal, Nathália Amarante, 2019. "Driving elements to make cities smarter: Evidences from European projects," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 154-167.
    18. Miguélez, Ernest & Moreno, Rosina, 2015. "Knowledge flows and the absorptive capacity of regions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 833-848.
    19. Maki Kato, 2019. "Effect of academic field and gender on college-bound migration in Japan," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 62(2), pages 351-379, April.
    20. Yasuhiro Sato & Masaaki Toma, 2017. "Transition of Spatial Distribution of Human Capital in　Japan," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1046, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    21. Clément Gorin, 2016. "Patterns and determinants of inventors’ mobility across European urban areas," Working Papers 1615, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jregsc:v:54:y:2014:i:1:p:33-60. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wiley Content Delivery). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-4146 .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.