EuHEA seminar: Marco Bertoni (University of Padova)

Marco Bertoni

Abstract

We study physicians’ migration intentions and relative preferences for various job characteristics by undertaking a Discrete Choice Experiment with medical students at Italian Universities. Using a mixed logit model, we estimate students’ willingness to pay for various job characteristics and find that not only are they willing to sacrifice a significant portion of their yearly salaries for desirable job features but also that they are willing to pay significantly more for them in order to stay in Italy. This emphasizes the importance of better job designing by policy makers in order to retain doctors in Italy in the presence of a huge brain drain of doctors over the past years. We also find significant heterogeneities in the likelihood of emigrating on the basis of observable non-cognitive characteristics. Specifically, we find that students with higher willingness to take risks and higher levels of altruism are more predisposed to leaving their home countries. This result has implications for the quality of the pool of doctors leaving Italy and those left behind.

Discussant: Julie Riise (University of Bergen)

Chair: Francesca Barigozzi (Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna)