Job and residential mobility in the Netherlands: the influence of human capital, household composition and location

Kronenberg, Kristin and Carree, Martin (2010): Job and residential mobility in the Netherlands: the influence of human capital, household composition and location.

Abstract

This study identifies and evaluates determinants of employees’ job and residential mobility. It examines mobility of fulltime employees in selected sectors in 2003/2004, using register data provided by Statistics Netherlands. We estimate a multinomial model of job and residential change. The results illustrate that individuals decide upon changing jobs and/or relocating by taking into account the strength of their family- and job-related ties. We also find that the prevalence of internal versus external career opportunities impedes job changes. While a high salary facilitates relocation, our findings regarding the effect of salary on interfirm mobility were inconclusive. A long commuting distance encourages (simultaneous) job and housing mobility, while being situated in the municipality of a large city encourages employees to either change jobs, or to relocate.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Job mobility, residential mobility, regional migration, human capital
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers > J62 - Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers > J61 - Geographic Labor Mobility ; Immigrant Workers; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J24 - Human Capital ; Skills ; Occupational Choice ; Labor Productivity; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R2 - Household Analysis > R23 - Regional Migration ; Regional Labor Markets ; Population ; Neighborhood Characteristics

References

Acemoglu, D. and Pischke, J.-S. (1999) The Structure of Wages and Investment in General Training, Journal of Political Economy, 107 (3), pp. 539-572.

Bartel, A.P. (1979) The Migration Decision: What Role Does Job Mobility Play?, American Economic Review, 69 (5), pp. 775-786.

Becker, G.S. (1962) Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis, Journal of Political Economy, 70 (5), pp. 9-49.

Becker, G.S. (1981) Altruism in the Family and Selfishness in the Market Place, Economica, 48 (189), pp. 1-15.

Bergin, A. (2008) Job Mobility in Ireland, Economics, Finance and Accounting Department Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, National University of Ireland – Maynooth, pp. 1-24.

Boockmann, B. and Steffes, S. (2007) Seniority and Job Stability: A Quantile Regression Approach Using Matched Employer-Employee Data, ZEW Discussion Paper 07-014, pp. 1-31.

Borghans, L. and Heijke, H. (2005) The Production and Use of Human Capital: Introduction, Education Economics,13 (2), pp. 133-142.

Boswell, C. (2008) Combining Economics and Sociology and Migration Theory, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 34 (4), pp. 549-566.

Böheim, R. and Taylor, M.P. (2007) From the dark end of the street to the bright side of the road? The wage wage returns migration in Britain, Labour Economics, 14 (1), pp. 99-117.

Börsch-Supan, A. (1990) Education and its Double-Edged Impact on Mobility, Economics of Education Review 9 (1), 39-53.

Burdett, K. (1978) A Theory of Employee Job Search and Quit Rates, American Economic Review, 68 (1), pp. 212-220.

Cellini, R. (2007) Migration and welfare: a very simple model, Journal of International Development, 19 (7), pp. 885-894.

Chen, Y. and Rosenthal, S.S. (2008) Local amenities and life-cycle migration: Do people move for jobs or fun?, Journal of Urban Economics, 64 (3), pp. 519-537.

Clark, W.A.V., Huang, Y. and Withers, S. (2003) Does commuting distance matter? Commuting tolerance and residential change, Regional Science and Urban Economics, 33 (2), pp. 199-221.

Cohen, A. (1999) Turnover among professionals: a longitudinal study of American lawyers, Human Resource Management, 38 (1), pp. 61-75.

Dieleman, F.M., Clark, W.A.V. and Deurloo, M.C. (2000) The Geography of Residential Turnover in Twenty-seven Large US Metropolitan Housing Markets, 1985-95, Urban Studies, 37 (2), pp. 223-245.

Eliasson, K., Lindgren, U. and Westerlund, O. (2003) Geographical Labour Mobility: Migration or Commuting?, Regional Studies, 37 (8), pp. 827-837.

Etzioni, A. (1986) The case for a multiple-utility conception, Economics and Philosophy, 2 (2), pp. 159-183.

Feijten, P. and Van Ham, M. (2007) Residential mobility and migration of the divorced and separated, Demographic Research, 17 (21), pp. 623-654.

Finney, M.M. and Kohlhase, J.E. (2008) The effect of urbanization on labor turnover, Journal of Regional Science, 28 (2), pp. 311-328.

Henneberger, F. and Sousa-Poza, A. (2002) Beweggründe und Determinanten zwischenbetrieblicher Mobilität: Die Schweiz in einer internationalen Perspektive, MittAB, 2/2002, pp. 205-231.

Jackman, R. and Savouri, S. (1992) Regional Migration Versus Regional Commuting: The Identification Of Housing And Employment Flows, Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 39 (3), pp. 272-287.

Kalleberg, A.L. and Mastekaasa, A. (1998) Organizational Size, Layoffs, and Quits in Norway, Social Forces, 76 (4), pp. 1243-1273.

Kalleberg, A.L. and Van Buren, M.E. (1996) Is Bigger Better? Explaining the Relationship Between Organization Size and Job Rewards, American Sociological Review, 61 (1), pp. 47-66.

Kan, K. (2003) Residential mobility and job changes under uncertainty, Journal of Urban Economics, 54 (3), pp. 566-586.

Kim, J.H., Pagliara, F. and Preston, J. (2005) The Intention to Move and Residential Location Choice Behaviour, Urban Studies, 42 (9), pp. 1621-1636.

Kirschenbaum, A. and Weisberg, J. (1991) Employee turnover intentions: implications from a national sample, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2 (3), pp. 359-375.

Kirschenbaum, A. and Weisberg, J. (2001) Employee’s turnover intentions and job destination choices, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23 (1), pp. 109-125.

Knapp, T.A., White, N.E. and Clark, D.E. (2001) A Nested Logit Approach to Household Mobility, Journal of Regional Science, 41 (1), pp. 1-22.

Linneman, P. and Graves, P.E. (1983) Migration and Job Change: A Multinomial Logit Approach, Journal of Urban Economics, 14 (3), pp. 263-279.

Mincer, J. (1978) Family migration decisions, Journal of Political Economy, 86 (5), pp. 749-773.

Molho, I. (1987) The migration decisions of young men in Great Britain, Applied Economics, 19 (2), pp. 221-243.

Nivalainen, S. (2004) Determinants of family migration: short moves vs. long moves, Journal of Population Economics, 17 (1), pp. 157-175.

Quigley, J.M. and Weinberg, D.H. (1977) Intra-Urban Residential Mobility: A Review and Synthesis, International Regional Science Review, 2 (1), pp. 41-66.

Rebitzer, J.B. (1986) Establishment Size and Job Tenure, Industrial Relations, 25 (3), pp. 292-302.

Ritsilä, J. and Ovaskainen, M. (2001) Migration and regional centralization of human capital, Applied Economics, 33 (3), pp. 317-325.

Schneider, L. (2007) Zu alt für einen Wechsel? Zum Zusammenhang von Alter, Lohndifferentialen und betrieblicher Mobilität, IWH-Diskussionspapiere 1/2007, pp. 2-25.

Sjaastad, L. (1962) The Costs and Returns of Human Migration, Journal of Political Economy, 70 (5), part 2, pp. 80-93.

Statistics Netherlands (2003) Demografische kerncijfers per gemeente 2003, Voorburg/Heerlen.

Statistics Netherlands (2010) population, key figures, retrieved February 11th, 2010, from http://statline.cbs.nl

Stolzenberg, R.M. (1978) Bringing the Boss Back In: Employer Size, Employee Schooling, and Socioeconomic Achievement, American Sociological Review, 43 (6), pp. 813-828.

Van Ommeren, J. (2000) Job and residential search behaviour of two-earner households, Papers in Regional Science, 79 (4), pp. 375-391.

Van Ommeren, J., Rietveld, P. and Nijkamp, P. (2000) Job mobility, residential mobility and commuting: A theoretical analysis using search theory, Annals of Regional Science, 34 (2), pp. 213-232.

Weiss, A. (1984) Determinants of Quit Behavior, Journal of Labor Economics, 2 (3), pp. 371-387.

Zax, J.S. (1991) The Substitution between Moves and Quits, Economic Journal, 101 (409), pp. 1510-1521.