Selective migration, regional growth and convergence: evidence from Italy

This paper studies the link between regional disparities and migration flows, focusing on the skill content of migration. Disparities may lead to migration, which should reduce them; but at the same time if migration is skill-selective, it may have an opposite effect and reinforce the richest regions. The object of this empirical analysis is Italy, a country where unskilled interregional migration flows were a large and very well-known phenomenon during the 1950s and 1970s, whilst in recent years, after three decades of very low labour mobility, thousands of Southern graduates have been moving to Northern regions. What is the economic impact of those flows of selective migration? Using data covering the period 1980–2001, it is found that although a slight process of convergence occurred between Italian regions, the loss of human capital in the South was detrimental to regional growth.