The geographic mobility of heterogeneous labour in germany

Levels of interregional migration in Germany are relatively low in international comparison and may contribute to lower overall employment levels, lower economic growth and persistent regional employment disparities. Increasing levels of geographic mobility may thus be a means of realising potential welfare gains and reducing regional employment disparities. Against this background, the willingness and ability of unemployed individuals to seek employment elsewhere is of central concern if geographic mobility is to contribute to higher overall employment levels and to an accelerated regional convergence. The effectiveness of migration as a means of realising these desirable goals, however, depends on the heterogeneous disincentive and incentives that shape individual mobility decisions. The major objective of this empirically and microeconometrically oriented dissertation thus is to shed light on the determinants of individual mobility decisions for heterogeneous groups of unemployed. In particular, the thesis examines whether different groups of unemployed jobseekers adjust their search strategies to local labour market conditions. Such responsiveness to local labour market conditions is desirable if migration is to contribute to a reduction of regional employment disparities. Empirical results indicate that only skilled and well-earning individuals respond to unfavourable local labour demand conditions by higher levels of migration. As a next step, the thesis thus examines to what extent institutional factors such as active and passive labour market policies are responsible for the immobility of certain labour market segments. While the empirical results point towards a limited mobility-reducing impact of the local supply of active labour market programs, several results throughout the theses indicate that the unemployment compensation, especially prolonged entitlements to unemployment benefits as well as higher income replacement rates, noticeably reduce mobility (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)