Do the Best Go West? An Analysis of the Self-Selection of Employed East-West Migrants in Germany

Herbert Brücker () and Parvati Trübswetter

No 986, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Since the inequality of earnings in East Germany has approached West German levels in the late 1990s, the standard Roy model predicts that a positive selection bias of East-West migrants should disappear. Using a switching regression model and data from the IABemployment sample, we find however that employed East-West migrants remain positively self-selected with respect to unobserved abilities. This result is consistent with the predictions of our extended Roy model which considers moving costs that are negatively correlated with labour market abilities of individuals. Moreover, we find that wage differentials as well as differences in employment opportunities are the central forces which drive East-West migration after unification.

Keywords: self-selection; East Germany; migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 P23 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2004-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Published - published in: Empirica, 2007, 34 (4), 371-395

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Related works:
Journal Article: Do the best go west? An analysis of the self-selection of employed East-West migrants in Germany (2007)
Working Paper: Do the Best Go West?: An Analysis of the Self-Selection of Employed East-West Migrants in Germany (2004)
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