Human Capital, Migration, and the Returns to Schooling

This project aims to understand the relationship between human capital accumulation, migration, and the returns to schooling. In particular, we are looking to answer three closely related research questions: First, how do local labor market conditions affect educational migration decisions? Second, how does migration for college affect “brain drain” from rural areas. Third, how does migration for college affect the spatial distribution of human capital and the recent rise in human capital agglomeration in many urban settings? The ultimate goal of the project is to understand not just the role of post-secondary education in producing human capital, but its role in the redistribution of human capital across the United States.

This project is in an early stage and is an opportunity to be directly involved with the research process from the start. The research assistant will work directly with the faculty authors on the cleaning and analysis of multiple large data sets and provides an opportunity for learning important research skills such as working with big data, data visualization, data analysis, and machine learning.