The Role of Education in Shaping Migration Decisions: An Analysis of the Higher Education Reform of 1977 in Sweden

Abstract: This study examines whether or not Sweden’s education reform in 1977, which established new university colleges in selected urban municipalities, had a spillover effect on people’s migration decisions toward rural municipalities and, if so, how that effect varied across demographic groups. To test this, a difference-in-differences method with a fixed effect setting is used in combination with Coarsened Exact Matching to create the best-matched control group. The results suggest that the study cannot draw a general conclusion that the education reform impacted people’s migration decisions toward rural regions in Sweden. Nonetheless, the results demonstrate the significance of geographic distance and individual characteristics in explaining migration decisions in these regions. Following the reform, fewer individuals between 15 and 24 years old are moving into rural municipalities with the effects being small but statistically significant. Furthermore, fewer individuals between 15 and 24 years old as well as 55 and 64 years old leave rural municipalities, but the effects are statistically weak to explain the true impact on migration. Finally, suggestions for future research on the subject are presented at the end.