Labour Mobility and the Portability of Social Rights in the EU

Using data from the Standard Eurobarometer survey 75.1 of 2011, the paper tests whether portability of social security within Europe is a key determinant of intra-European Union (EU) mobility. It does so by estimating a multinomial logit model with propensity matching comparing those survey respondents that made the experience of social security transfer in the past (either difficult or easy) to those that never had such experience. Estimations were run separately for two clusters of country: the older EU-15 and the newer EU-12. The results suggest that an easy experience with the transfer of social security across countries may increase the propensity to move abroad for professional reasons. In contrast, difficulties are likely to negatively affect mobility incentives. The sign of the effect is stable across countries, but intensity varies depending on the group of countries considered belonging to the EU-15 or EU-12. (JEL codes: J61, J62, H55, C25)