The price of mobility: How personality and preferences shape the mobility premium of university graduates

Weisser, Reinhard A.

Abstract

This paper addresses the question concerning the price of geographic mobility in various labour market and migration scenarios. Pivotal points are expected mobility premiums which are sufficient to tip the scales in favour of moving to a geographically distinct location. These premiums are first derived within a theoretical model, accounting not only for location-specific amenity levels or labour market conditions, but also for heterogeneous personality traits and preferences. Derived hypotheses demonstrate that—in presence of heterogeneous psychic costs or adjustment capabilities—expected mobility premiums can remain distinctly positive even in an unemployment scenario. Furthermore, adjustment capabilities are to a large extent related to earlier mobility experiences, implying that labour mobility is partially learnable.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 24, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Sep 12, 2018
• Publication Date: Feb 12, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jul 18, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 19, 2023
• Journal: Review of Regional Research
• Print ISSN: 0173-7600
• Electronic ISSN: 1613-9836
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 25-64
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10037-018-0126-2
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10952687