Labour market performance and determinants of migration by gender and region of origin

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of labour market performance on interregional migration decisions in Finland. The focus is on the correlation between unobservable productivity factors in regions of origin and destination. Bivariate probit models are estimated separately by gender and region of origin. The results suggest that person-specific productivity has hardly any impact on the likelihood of migration, except for females living in peripheral regions: women with the poorest local prospects decide to migrate. It is concluded that peripheral regions are not necessarily losing their more productive workers.