Living preferences of STEM workers in a high-tech business park of a peripheral region

Inge Hooijen and Frank Cörvers
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Inge Hooijen: ROA / Human capital in the region, RS: GSBE Theme Learning and Work

No 7, ROA Research Memorandum from Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA)

Abstract: Despite the importance of STEM workers to regional economies, scientists and policymakers have a limited understanding of how to recruit this scarce target group, particularly in offering an attractive living environment. This case study uses self-reported overall life satisfaction to explore the living preferences of STEM workers employed at a high-tech business park (HTBP) in a demographically shrinking region in the southern periphery of the Netherlands. We argue that individuals’ self-evaluation of life satisfaction is a proxy for their individual utility and thereby indicates the preferred features of the geographical unit in which they reside. We relate the survey data of 420 employees at the business park to the specific characteristics of the municipalities they live in, complemented by qualitative data from 32 semi-structured interviews with these workers. We conclude that the average STEM worker at the HTBP prefers to reside in places of lower extraversion, which are often characterized by a suburban lifestyle, green areas, and open spaces, including a little touch of consumer amenities.

JEL-codes: J11 O18 R11 R23 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-05-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-ure
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Working Paper: Living preferences of STEM workers in a high-tech business park of a peripheral region (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unm:umaror:2020007

DOI: 10.26481/umaror.2020007

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