Roberto Basile
;
Alessandro Girardi
;
Marianna Mantuano
;
Giuseppe Russo

interregional migration of human capital and unemployment dynamics: evidence from italian provinces

Since the mid-90s interregional migration flows in Italy have dramatically increased, especially from the South to the North. These flows are characterized by a strong component of human capital, involving a large number of workers with secondary and tertiary education. Using longitudinal data for the period 2002-2011 at NUTS-3 territorial level, we document that long-distance (i.e. South-North) net migration of high-skill workers has increased the unemployment at origin and decreased it at destination, thus deepening North-South unemployment disparities. On the other hand, long-distance net migration of low-skill workers has had the opposite effect, by lowering the unemployment at origin and raising it at destination. Further evidence also suggests that the diverging effect of high-skill migration dominates the converging effect of low-skill migration. Thus, concerns for an “internal brain drain”from Southern regions look not groundless.

Data and Resources

Suggested Citation

Basile, Roberto; Girardi, Alessandro; Mantuano, Marianna; Russo, Giuseppe (2018): Interregional Migration of Human Capital and Unemployment Dynamics: Evidence from Italian Provinces. Version: 1. German Economic Review. Dataset. http://dx.doi.org/10.15456/ger.2018176.092243

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