ABSTRACT
This paper seeks to understand better the effects of homeownership and regional unemployment levels on inter-provincial migration during the recent economic crisis in Spain. It uses rich individual-level microdata from the last two Spanish censuses (2001–2011) to study migration. The findings suggest that regional unemployment levels do not have a strong impact on internal migration in the period analyzed. However, homeownership is a key explanatory factor of immobility, which became more important in 2011 compared with 2001. This immobility effect of homeownership is stronger in depressed regions, which suggests that some people may be trapped in their dwellings, or the security of homeownership becomes essential when the structural conditions are unfavourable.
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DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Isabel Palomares-Linares http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6795-2987
Maarten van Ham http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2106-0702
Notes
1. The Rotational Panel Survey is conducted by the Spanish Institute of Statistics four times per year using a sample of 65,000 households.