Date: 2023
Type: Thesis
Understanding migration and education choices under uncertainty
Florence : European University Institute, 2023, EUI, ECO, PhD Thesis
AYARZA, Alaitz, Understanding migration and education choices under uncertainty, Florence : European University Institute, 2023, EUI, ECO, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/75604
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
This thesis is composed of two related and one independent chapters. The first two chapters use rich data on subjective expectations about migration decisions of highly educated young adults from a lagging-behind region of Spain (Andalusia) that I collected myself during their migration decision-making process. In Chapter 1, I study how expected pecuniary and nonpecuniary factors influence these individuals’ migration decisions. To do so, I estimate a life-cycle model of migration choice that takes expected migration duration into account. Crucially, the collected data allow me to separate preferences from beliefs and to distinguish between pecuniary and nonpecuniary factors. Although there is sorting on expected labor market outcomes, my results show that the set of nonpecuniary factors, such as being close to family and quality of social life, play a larger role in choosing whether to migrate. Additionally, counterfactual exercises reveal that a human capital acquisition strategy has a limited effect on temporary migration plans, which are primarily driven by nonpecuniary factors. Chapter 2 studies their self-selection intentions into internal and international migration. I find that individuals who plan to migrate internationally come from the highest end of the grade distribution and are from more privileged family backgrounds relative to the other two groups. Despite being positively selected, students who plan to migrate internationally have the most pessimistic views about their career prospects in their home region. With their migration plans, they expect higher labor market returns to migration than internal migrants. International migrants are more likely than internal migrants to plan a long term migration as opposed to a temporary migration. If individuals follow their plans, my results suggest a future brain drain from the region as well as from the country. Chapter 3, joint with Josep Amer-Mestre and Marta C. Lopes, studies the impact of COVID19 school closures on differences in online learning usage by regional academic performance in Italy. Using real-time data from Google Trends, we find that students in regions with a previously lower academic performance increased their searches for e-learning tools more than those with higher academic performance. Given evidence from survey and administrative data that lower performing regions were using no less online learning before the pandemic, our results suggest that the COVID-19 shock widened the e-learning usage gap between academically lower and higher-performing regions in Italy.
Table of Contents:
1. Determinants of migration choices : the role of beliefs about pecuniary and nonpecuniary outcomes --
2. Understanding the self-selection into internal and international migration of young individuals : evidence using subjective expectations data --
3. E-learning engagement gap during school closures : differences by academic --
A. Appendix to Chapter 1 --
B. Appendix to Chapter 2 --
C. Appendix to Chapter 3 --
Additional information:
Defence date: 23 May 2023; Examining Board: Prof. Sule Alan, (European University Institute, supervisor); Prof. Michèle Belot, (Cornell University, co-supervisor); Prof. Raquel Carrasco, (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Prof. Marco Francesconi, (University of Essex)
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/75604
Full-text via DOI: 10.2870/699103
Series/Number: EUI; ECO; PhD Thesis
Publisher: European University Institute
LC Subject Heading: Emigration and immigration; Education, Higher; Immigrants -- Spain
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