Estimating the Effect of Distance on the Migration of Higher Education Candidates

Diogo Lourenço; Carla Sá

doi:10.1515/bejeap-2022-0092

Article

Estimating the Effect of Distance on the Migration of Higher Education Candidates

Diogo Lourenço and Carla Sá

Published/Copyright: September 27, 2022

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From the journal The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy Volume 22 Issue 4

Abstract

In this paper, we use a gravity approach to study the impact of distance on desired migratory flows of candidates to undergraduate courses in Portugal. We employ a large administrative database that includes the entire population of candidates to public HE institutions in Portugal from 2008 to 2019. We document, in line with the literature, that distance is a significant deterrent to mobility, with flows showing an average elasticity to distance between −2 and −1, a value that tends to decay as distance increases. We find that flows are particularly sensitive when distance is measured by travel time. We show, however, that the deterrence effect is not homogeneous. Among other results, we identify and measure important differences across fields of education. Finally, we illustrate how using different probability density functions can be of service in finding the most appropriate gravity model specification.

Keywords: gravity models; student mobility; market segmentation; distance

JEL Classification: I20; R23; O15

Corresponding author: Diogo Lourenço, Centro de Economia e Finanças (CEF.UP), Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias 4200-464 Porto, Portugal, E-mail: dlourenco@fep.up.pt.

Funding source: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Award Identifier / Grant number: UID/00757/2020

Award Identifier / Grant number: UID/03182/2020

Award Identifier / Grant number: UIDB/04105/2020

Acknowledgments

We thank two anonymous referees for several insightful comments and suggestions.

Author contributions: None declared.
Research funding: This work was supported by Portuguese public funds, namely through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, under projects UID/03182/2020, UID/00757/2020 and UIDB/04105/2020.
Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Received: 2022-03-01

Revised: 2022-07-18

Accepted: 2022-08-02

Published Online: 2022-09-27

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2022-0092

Keywords for this article

gravity models; student mobility; market segmentation; distance