The determinants of internal migration in West Germany, 1967

Summary and Conclusion

We initially set ourselves the task of explaining the geographical movement of labor in West Germany in 1967. In so doing we have investigated two alternative models; the standard model based on net advantages and the job opportunity model. Our results clearly support the thesis that job opportunities playa substantial role in the geographical distribution of labor in West Germany. Of the two measures of job opportunity the vacancy rate seems to be preferable, at least, in labor scarce economics. The standard distance variable performs quite well, perhaps unexpectedly well in light of the relatively small distances involved. This has led us to speculate that distance may be closely related to the difficulty with whichm potential movers acquire labor market information. Finally, wage differences seem not to explain the locational patterns of movers. However, the lack of variation in wages among the regions that we studied causes us to consider this result highly tentative and subject to further study.