Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to examine the role of job search in migration decisions. Our motivation comes from two stylised facts on within-country migration: not only do college graduates move more than high school dropouts, they are also more likely to move for a specific job rather than move “speculatively”. We estimate a logit model of joint location-employment choice and allow for variation in workers’ choice set to model different job search strategies. We find that, controlling for the returns to migration, education increases propensity to migrate by enabling workers to search across distant labour markets.