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Career Migration, Self-selection and the Earnings of Married Men and Women in the Netherlands, 1981-93

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  • Jeroen Smits

    (Department for Health Services Research, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, P O Box 1, 3720 BA Bilthoven, The Netherlands, jeroen.smits@rivm.nl)

Abstract

The relationship between career migration and earnings is studied for married men and women in the Netherlands. The hourly wages of married men and women who made a recent long-distance move are found to be higher than those of married men and women who did not move or who moved only over a small distance. This earning difference between migrants and non-migrants seems to be due completely to the fact that the migrants are a favourable self-selected group, both with regard to their measured characteristics and with regard to their unmeasured characteristics. If this favourable self-selection is taken into account, the male and female migrants turn out to earn significantly less than their non-migrating counterparts. For the males, this finding suggests that before the move they were in relatively unfavourable labour market situations compared with the non-migrants with the same measured and unmeasured characteristics. For the females, the negative effect of migration merely indicates that most long-distance moves are still made for the career of their husband.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeroen Smits, 2001. "Career Migration, Self-selection and the Earnings of Married Men and Women in the Netherlands, 1981-93," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(3), pages 541-562, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:38:y:2001:i:3:p:541-562
    DOI: 10.1080/00420980120080091
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Kent Eliasson & Robert Nakosteen & Olle Westerlund & Michael Zimmer, 2014. "All in the family: Self-selection and migration by couples," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(1), pages 101-124, March.
    3. Venhorst, V. & Cörvers, F., 2015. "Entry into working life: Spatial mobility and the job match quality of higher-educated graduates," ROA Research Memorandum 003, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).

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