The Role of Non-Pecuniary Considerations: Location Decisions of College Graduates from Low Income Backgrounds

Yifan Gong, Todd Stinebrickner, Ralph Stinebrickner and Yuxi Yao

No 32127, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We examine the initial post-college geographic location decisions of students from hometowns in the Appalachian region that often lack substantial high-skilled job opportunities, focusing on the role of non-pecuniary considerations. Novel survey questions in the spirit of the contingent valuation approach allow us to measure the full non-pecuniary benefits of each relevant geographic location, in dollar equivalents. A new specification test is designed and implemented to provide evidence about the quality of these non-pecuniary measures. Supplementing perceived location choice probabilities and expectations about pecuniary factors with our new non-pecuniary measures allows us to estimate a stylized model of location choice and obtain a comprehensive understanding of the importance of pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors. We also combine the non-pecuniary measures with realized location and earnings outcomes to characterize inequality in overall welfare.

JEL-codes: J0 J32 J38 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-ure
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Related works:
Journal Article: The Role of Nonpecuniary Considerations: Location Decisions of College Graduates From Low‐Income Backgrounds (2025)
Working Paper: The Role of Non-Pecuniary Considerations: Locations Decisions of College Graduates from Low Income Backgrounds (2022)
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