Abstract

In Germany, significant regional disparities have existed for a long time w.r.t. economic strength and labour market conditions. The mobility of labour is of high importance for the economic development of rural areas and regional disparities. Therefore, this project analyses migration balances of rural areas in Germany and the determinants of interregional labour mobility. In particular, it focuses on the spatial mobility of workers over their individual working lives, i.e., the likelihood to emigrate from a rural area, to immigrate to a rural area, and subsequent return Migration. We analyse migration balances of regions and the determinants of labour mobility in Germany.At the regional level, we do not only consider net-migration rates, but also look at gross-flows. We analyse the heterogeneity of migration balances depending on individual characteristics such as age and educational degree in order to obtain insights on how the human capital endowment of a region changes due to interregional labour mobility.T he analysis of individual decisions to migrate focuses on the likelihood to emigrate from a rural area and the likelihood of return migration. Furthermore, we analyse mobility between different types of regions. We take characteristics of the workers and the regional environment into account and analyse the extent to which the impact of these characteristics changes over an individual’s working life. Our analyses are based on secondary data: the Individual Employment Biographies (IEB) of the IAB. We analyse the very detailed information contained in the IAB individual employment biographies of workers by applying descriptive and micro-econometric methods.