The effect of polytechnic reform on migration

Petri Böckerman () and Mika Haapanen

Journal of Population Economics, 2013, vol. 26, issue 2, 593-617

Abstract: This paper examines the effect of the polytechnic reform on geographical mobility. A polytechnic, higher education reform took place in Finland in the 1990s. It gradually transformed former vocational colleges into polytechnics and also brought higher education to regions that did not have a university before. This expansion of higher education provides exogenous variation in the regional supply of higher education. The reform raised the mobility of high school graduates across local labour markets in the years after they had completed their secondary studies, which indicated increased mobility between high school and post-secondary education. We estimate that the reform enhanced the annual migration rate of high school graduates by 1.2 percentage points over a 3-year follow-up period. This represents a substantial increase, because their baseline migration rate is 3.7 %. The effect fades several years after the completion of secondary studies. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

Keywords: Migration; School reform; High school graduates; Vocational education; Polytechnic education; J10; J61; I20; R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

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Working Paper: The effect of polytechnic reform on migration (2011)
Working Paper: The effect of polytechnic reform on migration (2011)
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DOI: 10.1007/s00148-012-0454-4

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