Internal migration and growth in Italy

Abstract

The analysis focuses on the impact of interregional migration flows on regional growth rates during the period 1983-2002. A first important result is that migration did affect regional growth rates in Italy. Moreover, the results from the analysis of the two sub-periods, 1983-1992 and 1993-2002, show that the different trends of migration flows during the two decades and their differences in human capital content did affect regional growth in different ways. Both net migration rate and gross migration rates are used as regressors in different estimations. Furthermore, in order to investigate how the human capital content of migrants affected the regional growth, a further specification of the empirical model differentiates the migration rates according with their educational attainment. The outcomes show that migrants with a high educational attainment have the strongest impact on regional growth.internal migration and growth; convergence; human capital; panel data