Migration flows by educational attainment: Disentangling the heterogeneous role of push and pull factors

This paper analyzes the determining factors of South to Center-North migration flows in Italy for five different educational groups. We find strong support for the paramount role of total and education-specific migration networks. Furthermore, we unveil an inverse relationship between the magnitude of the response of migration flows by educational level and the regional endowment of human capital. More generally, it emerges that once migrants educational attainment is explicitly considered, the reaction of migration flows is highly heterogeneous with respect to the push and pull factors that usually determine them. In the economics of migration literature, these results have not yet been documented.

Automated summary

This paper analyzes the determining factors of South to Center-North migration flows in Italy for five different educational groups. It finds strong support for the paramount role of total and education-specific migration networks, as well as an inverse relationship between the magnitude of the response of migration flows by educational level and the regional endowment of human capital. It also reveals that once migrants' educational attainment is explicitly considered, the reaction of migration flows is highly heterogeneous with respect to the push and pull factors that usually determine them, a finding not yet documented in the economics of migration literature.