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Title: The Role of Non-Pecuniary Considerations: Location Decisions of College Graduates from Low Income Backgrounds

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2022

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Abstract: We examine the initial post-college geographic location decisions of students from hometowns in the Appalachian region that often lack substantial high-skilled job opportunities, focusing on the role of non-pecuniary considerations. Novel survey questions allow us to measure the full non-pecuniary benefits of each relevant geographic location, in dollar equivalents. A new specification test is designed and implemented to provide evidence about the quality of these non-pecuniary measures. Supplementing perceived location choice probabilities and expectations about pecuniary factors with our new non-pecuniary measures allows a new approach for obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the importance of pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors for location decisions. We compare this approach to alternative expectations-based approaches. We also combine the non-pecuniary measures with realized location and earnings outcomes to characterize inequality in overall welfare.

Url: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1163&context=economicscibc

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Authors: Gong, Yifan; Stinebrickner, Todd; Stinebrickner, Ralph; Yao, Yuxi

Series Title: Centre for Human Capital and Productivity Working Papers

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Institution: Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP)

Pages: 1-58

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Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Population Data Science, Poverty and Welfare

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