An analysis of trends in spatial mobility of Dutch graduates

Abstract

Considerable attention in the literature has been devoted to spatial mobility as a mechanism in the transition from study to work. In this paper, the relationships between migration and both regional economic circumstances and individual characteristics are investigated using a micro-dataset on Dutch college and university graduates. Over the last decade, some Dutch regions have retained increasingly higher proportions of college graduates. We find that the presence of a large labour market is the most important structural economic determinant for these higher retention rates. Cyclical determinants appear to affect university graduate migration more than college graduate migration.