Men who move in order to take up a new job receive higher wages

This is revealed by Anders Boman, a researcher at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden in his thesis “Geographic Labour Mobility – Causes and Consequences”. He also demonstrates that those who are willing to move have a greater chance of finding work in their home locality.

Anders Boman has studied people who became unemployed as a result of business closures or substantial cutbacks in workplaces during the period 1986-1988, and their chances of obtaining a new job. The study includes an analysis of the effects on earnings for those who moved compared with those who did not move after losing their job.

In general the effects are negative in the first years after moving, followed by positive effects in succeeding years. However, studying the effects for men and women separately produces marked differences in the results. In terms of earnings, men do not experience any negative effects in conjunction with moving. In the initial years there are no differences in income between men who have moved and those who have stayed at home, however, a few years later the men experience a positive effect on their earnings with further increases over time.

– There are, however, no positive effects for women, on the contrary, there is a negative effect on earnings in all years after moving, says Anders Boman.

In his thesis Anders Boman has also examined the opportunities available to the unemployed in general in obtaining a new job, and among other things he has studied how these opportunities are affected by willingness to move for the sake of work. The results show that applicants who make use of an extended geographic area are more likely to get a job where they live. In other words, if the unemployed individual is prepared to move in order to find a job, he or she has a greater chance of getting a job in their current place of residence. This suggests that those individuals who utilise a larger search area also have other characteristics that affect the likelihood of getting a new job, for example a higher degree of motivation or a greater willingness to make sacrifices in order to get work, and that it is these qualities, rather than the extended search area per se, that increase their chances of finding work.

The thesis, which consists of three self-contained articles, was presented on 16 January 2008.
Author: Anders Boman
Title of the thesis: “Geographic Labour Mobility – Causes and Consequences”
Department: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
For further information, contact Anders Boman:
+46 (0)31-786 2645
+46 (0)702-345 647
anders.boman@economics.gu.se