Regional migration in the Czech Republic: Economic factors are the key

Abstract

This article aims to determine and evaluate factors influencing migration behaviour and decision to migrate in 14 regions of the Czech Republic in the periods 1995–2018 and 2004–2018 (after the accession to the EU). The panel data analysis conducted mostly confirms our hypotheses on the impact of the analysed factors, confirming the impact of GDP growth, number of job listings at Labour Offices, number of job applicants, employment in industry and number of finished dwellings. The exceptions are the variables for the crime rate and number of college students in the region, where we found a positive but barely statistically significant coefficient. One group of factors (GDP growth, jobs at Labour Office, finished dwellings) prove to be pull factors, i.e., they are statistically significant and have a positive impact on migration flows. There are also two push factors, both of which represent the labour market situation and, to some extent, the structure of the economy in the region (number of job applicants and employment in industry). Their relationship with migration flows is negative and statistically significant, while several robustness tests are employed.