The role of higher education in spatial mobility

Abstract

The role of higher education in social and spatial mobility has attracted considerable attention. However, there are very few countrywide databases that follow the career paths of graduates from their place of birth, through their enrollment in university, and ultimately to their workplace. However, in Hungary, there is an excellent source maintained by the government’s Education Authority containing information on career tracks, which allows one to follow all students from their place of birth, through their choice of higher education institution, to their workplace. With the combination of gravity-like economic models and the proposed mobility network, this paper examines the mediating and retaining role of institutions. This paper also proposes how to calculate the added value of location and institution in salaries and how to use these values to explain mobility between locations. The paper also shows how economic inequities influence revealed application preferences through the asymmetry of the mobility network.