Migration and regional convergence: An empirical investigation for Turkey*

Murat Kırdar and Dürdane Saracoğlu ()

Papers in Regional Science, 2008, vol. 87, issue 4, 545-566

Abstract: Abstract The standard growth model predicts that allowing labour mobility across regions would increase the speed of convergence in per capita income levels and that migration has a negative causal impact on regional growth rates. Although the empirical literature has uncovered some evidence for the former implication, the latter has not been verified empirically. This paper provides empirical evidence for the negative causal impact of migration on provincial growth rates in a developing country with a high level of internal migration characterized by unskilled labour exiting rural areas for urban centres. We utilize an instrumental variables estimation method with an instrument unique to the country examined, controlling for provincial fixed effects. Resumen El modelo de crecimiento estándar predice que el permitir la movilidad laboral entre regiones aumentará la rapidez en alcanzar una convergencia en los niveles de ingresos per cápita y que la migración tiene un impacto causal negativo en las tasas de crecimiento regionales. Aunque la literatura empírica ha descubierto alguna prueba de la primera implicación, la última no ha sido verificada empíricamente. Este artículo proporciona pruebas empíricas del impacto causal negativo de la migración en las tasas de crecimiento provinciales en un país en desarrollo con una elevada migración interna caracterizada por mano de obra no cualificada desplazándose de las áreas rurales a los centros urbanos. Utilizamos un método de estimación de variables instrumentales con un instrumento único para el país examinado, al tiempo que controlamos los efectos fijos provinciales.

Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1435-5957.2008.00178.x

Related works:
Working Paper: Migration and Regional Convergence: An Empirical Investigation for Turkey (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:presci:v:87:y:2008:i:4:p:545-566

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