Migratory flows of Andalusian workers (1979-1997): an economic analysis with individual data

The present article studies migration rates in between andalucian provincies and also between them and the rest of Spain. Using administrative data from Spanish Social Security, we are able to identify not only permanent migrants but also those who migrate only to do a temporary job during a short term period. We find that migration in Andalucia is mainly in between andalucian provincies although, when we control by distance, the main destinations are Madrid and the Baleares islands. Moreover, these flows are higher for males and highly qualified workers. We estimate a model for the probability of migrating and find that andalucian workers go mainly to provincies with relatively high levels of income, higher real wages and low home prices. We also obtain that the differences in unemployment rates between the origin and the destination is a fundamental motivation of the probability of migrating.