Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/286700 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
CHCP Working Paper No. 2022-01
Publisher: 
The University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP), London (Ontario)
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.
Subjects: 
non-pecuniary preferences
expectations data
location choice
welfare andincome inequality
Appalachia
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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