1. The Role of Non-Pecuniary Considerations: Location Decisions of College Graduates from Low Income Backgrounds
- Author:
- Yifan Gong, Todd Stinebrickner, Yuxi Yao, and Ralph Stinebrickner
- Publication Date:
- 01-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP), Western University
- 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.
- Topic:
- Income Inequality, Welfare, Higher Education, Data, and Location Choice
- Political Geography:
- North America, United States of America, and Appalachia