Human Capital, Migration and Regional Inequality: How the location of education institutions influences our society

As regional inequalities in economic prosperity have increased in Denmark in recent years, the political tools for slowing down this development are taking up space in public debates. The geographical location of public institutions, in particular educational institutions, has become a political hot topic in recent years in Denmark. In order to address the regional imbalance, the current Danish government has suggested that geographical access to higher education should be improved by creating more educational opportunities across the country.

There are several arguments for focusing on the decentralisation of public educational institutions. One central argument concerns the right to equal opportunities for all citizens, including the opportunity to harness human resources. If distance to education acts as a barrier to participation in education, it becomes both a social problem and a failure to utilize a source of human capital. Another central argument is that the location of educational institutions might affect residential choice and inter-regional migration.

However, Denmark lacks the empirical evidence to inform these arguments. Hence, it is uncertain how the creation of more educational opportunities will influence enrolment in education programmes and inter-regional migration. The aim of this thesis is to obtain insights into the impact of geographical access to educational institutions. By focussing on two central educational choices for young people, choice of youth education and choice of higher education, this thesis provides new evidence for the associations between geographical proximity to education, educational choices and migration during the life-cycle of the individual.

The main contribution of this thesis is therefore that it provides new knowledge about how the initial choice of youth education influences young people’s decision-making with respect to migration. Research has primarily focused on highly educated individuals and the determinants and consequences of the spatial mobility of recent university graduates. However, there is a gap in the literature concerning what shapes those highly educated individuals’ initial choices on their educational trajectories. Evidence about the determinants of educational choices and migration by young people is needed to acquire a fuller picture of the sorting and divergence of regional human capital.

In this thesis I use quantitative, statistical methods to examine the research questions. The analysis in the papers is based on longitudinal data from the administrative population register of Statistics Denmark, combined with detailed distance measures between place of residence and educational institutions in Denmark. All analyses are conducted using micro-level data in which individuals are the unit of analysis.

The thesis is structured into five introductory chapters and four academic papers. The four papers cover different perspectives of the educational paths of individuals. Papers 1 and 2 centre on the role of upper secondary education, while papers 3 and 4 examine higher education institutions.

Paper 1 studies to what extent distance from home to general upper secondary education institutions influences participation. In addition, the paper examines to what extend young individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds are more affected by geographical constraints. Using data on the total population of 15-year-olds in Denmark, from 1982 – 2018, the study provides causal evidence of the effect of distance to school. The results suggests that the influence of this distance is most prevalent among young people from lower-educated families, and the influence diminishes if one of the parents holds a university degree.

Paper 2 examines the effect of completion of a general upper secondary education programme on young individuals’ migration patterns. The paper focuses on migration out of rural areas among young people between 18 and 24 years old. The results suggest that completion of a general upper secondary education significantly increases the probability that a person will move out of a rural area.

Paper 3 considers the role of distance to higher education in young people’s decision-making about their educational paths. The study focuses on young people who have graduated from a general upper secondary education programme. Overall, the results suggests that, in the current educational landscape in Denmark, distance to higher education plays no significant role in whether young people decide to enrol in higher education or not.

Paper 4 provides descriptive evidence of important factors for the retention of graduates in the region where their higher education institution is located. The paper focuses on newly educated graduates and analyses their migration decisions up until 10 years after graduation. The findings point to the importance of regional location and the local labour market for the retention of highly educated graduates.

In this thesis, I paint a broader picture of the impact of geographical access to educational institutions than has previously been available for Denmark. Overall, this thesis contributes to the debate on the role of local educational institutions in regional development.