Regional Convergence and The Causal Impact of Migration on Regional Growth Rates

Murat G. Kirdar (kirdar@metu.edu.tr) and Dürdane Saracoğlu (ssirin@metu.edu.tr)
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Murat G. Kirdar: Department of Economics, METU

No 702, ERC Working Papers from ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University

Abstract: The standard growth theory predicts that allowing for labor 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 that is characterized by unskilled labor exiting rural areas for urban centers. We utilize instrumental variables estimation method with an instrument unique to the country examined and also control for provincial fixed effects.

Keywords: Regional convergence; Regional growth; Internal migration; Fixed effects; IV estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 O40 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 10 pages
Date: 2007-01, Revised 2007-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://erc.metu.edu.tr/en/system/files/menu/series07/0702.pdf First version, 2007 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Regional convergence and the causal impact of migration on regional growth rates (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:met:wpaper:0702

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