Educational Attainment as a Derterminant of Internal Migration

This thesis examines the effect of educational attainment on an individual’s migration decision within Indonesia. Previous scholars have emphasized the importance of education as a selection factor into migration. However, empirical evidence from developing countries on the relationship between education and migration is relatively thin. Studies performed in the past mainly used aggregate data and were unable to identify the effect of educational attainment, prior to migration, on the decision to move. This thesis aims to fill this gap in the literature by using an extensive panel dataset that tracks Indonesian households and individuals over time. Using a binomial logit model, the effect of educational attainment on the migration decision is analyzed at three different spatial levels. Overall, the results indicate that educational attainment has a significant positive effect on migration for higher levels of education and that this effect is quite substantial. Supported by existing theory, it is argued that the observed positive relationship may be due to increased employment opportunities, acquired skills and enhancement of social networks associated with education.