Population, macroeconomic variables, quality of life, and interprovincial migration of Italians and foreigners

Piras, Romano

2026-01-01

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Abstract

We study Italian interprovincial migration flows, analysing total migrants, Italians and foreigners separately. Along with traditional gravity variables, we introduce a quality-of-life index. The results show distinct and heterogeneous effects of migration determinants across national groups and different internal migration corridors. Foreigners exhibit higher mobility and respond more strongly to labour market differentials compared with Italians. We find that the influence of quality of life varies between Italians and foreigners, and across different migration corridors. We frame our analysis inside a theoretically grounded gravity model and apply the common correlated effect panel data estimator to account for multilateral resistance to migration.