This paper examines whether access to markets had a significant influence on migration choices of Spanish internal migrants in the interwar years. In it we perform a structural contrast of a New Economic Geography model that focuses on the forward linkage that links workers location choice with the geography of industrial production. The results prove the existence of a direct relation between workers' localization decisions and the market potential of the host regions. This could help to explain the apparently low intensity of internal migrations in Spain until the 1920s as well as its geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
EMIGRATION & immigration, HOME prices, HOUSING market, HOUSE construction
Abstract
ABSTRACT We provide causal estimates of the effect of immigration on house prices and construction activity in Spain over the period 2000-2010. During this period Spain experienced spectacular swings in both immigration and the housing market. Our instrumental-variables estimates suggest that between 2000 and 2010, immigration led to an average 1.5 percent annual increase in the working-age population. This was responsible for an annual increase in housing prices of about 2 percent, and for a 1.2-1.5 percent increase in housing units. Overall, immigration was responsible for one quarter of the increase in prices and about half of the construction activity over the decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Examines the economic determinants of interregional labor force flows in Spain. Role of the flow of workers from one region to another in solving regional structural imbalances in the labor market; Impact of unemployment on out-migration; Significance of the rate change of relative wages on migration.