Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Migration as a Measure of Economic Health

Asheville, North Carolina cursed with attracting young, college-educated migrants at Pacific Standard magazine.

Theme: Economic development and migration.

Subject Article: "Striking out with college grads."

Other Links: 1. "Dallas Losing at the Competition of Cities."
2. "Estimating the social return to higher education:evidence from longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional data."
3. "The Effect of College Location on Migration of College-Educated Labor."
4. "Do Colleges and Universities Increase Their Region's Human Capital?"
5. "We Got More Educated, We Are Better Off...Right?"
6. "An Exploration of Factors Influencing the Conversion of Bachelor’s Degree Attainment into a Better Labor Market."

Postscript: Why this analysis matters:

In 2008, Louisville set out to boost its college-educated workforce — setting the goal for half its working-age adults to hold associate or bachelor's degrees by 2020. ...

... "Louisville is not gaining enough ground toward the bachelor's degree goal," according to the latest progress report, which comes amid rising tuition costs, an improving economy and population growth that pushes the total degrees needed to 59,000.

Although high-school graduation and college-readiness rates are improving, enrollments at local colleges and universities have fallen by 11 percent since 2010, the report found, particularly among adults and African Americans.

Louisville wants to raise the college educational attainment rate of its workforce. The region is going about the task in the wrong way. First, increasing the number of local college graduates does not appear to be an effective way to give the rate a boost. Second, even if the effort was successful, Louisville probably wouldn't see positive labor market outcomes.

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