Empirical modelling of internal migration and commuting flows for economic regions in Norway

Abstract

This paper provides empirical results for internal migration and commuting flows using panel data for 89 economic regions in Norway for the years 2001-2014. The emphasis is on the potential effects of different incentive variables. We consider both in- and out-migration as well as in- and outcommuting with a common set of explanatory variables. We perform panel data analysis for four educational groups using seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) models, acknowledging that the effects of the incentive variables may vary across educational groups. Generally, we find weak responses to the incentive variables for the eight response variables, but they differ somewhat across the educational groups. The group comprised of those with a low education appears to be most responsive.