RIEB Discussion Paper Series No.2025-34

Title

Reexamining the Factors Influencing Migration Decisions

Abstract

This study explores the impact of risk attitudes and endowment effects on migration decisions under different motivations and migration distance conditions, focusing on the variability between short- and long-distance migration. Using data from Australia, we compare two measures of risk attitudes—a continuous risk index and a categorical risk threshold approach—and further test these effects in conjunction with household-level cluster analysis. The findings suggest that the effects of risk attitudes on migration decisions are likely to operate in long-distance migration when motivation is considered. In addition, we demonstrate that the endowment effect does not play a role in long-distance but plays a key role in short-distance migration decisions. Furthermore, we introduce a clustering-based analysis to reveal the impact of variations in family background on migration decisions. We find that the differences in coefficient estimates between the clustering and main models is negligible, indicating that the results of the main model remain robust and reliable after accounting for potential group differences.

Keywords

Migration decision; Risk attitude; Endowment effect; Clustering-based analysis; Logit model

JEL Classification

D81, J61, R23

Inquiries

Yishan LIU
Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University

Junyi SHEN
Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, JAPAN
2-1, Rokkodai, Nada,
Kobe, 657-8501, Japan
Phone: +81-78-803-7036
FAX: +81-78-803-7059