Migration and regional convergence: An empirical investigation for Turkey

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Kirdar M. G., SARAÇOĞLU D. Ş.

PAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE, cilt.87, sa.4, ss.545-567, 2008 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 87 Sayı: 4
  • Basım Tarihi: 2008
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1111/j.1435-5957.2008.00178.x
  • Dergi Adı: PAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.545-567
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Regional convergence, regional growth, internal migration, fixed effects, IV estimation, GROWTH
  • Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The standard growth model predicts that allowing labour 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 characterized by unskilled labour exiting rural areas for urban centres. We utilize an instrumental variables estimation method with an instrument unique to the country examined, controlling for provincial fixed effects.