Using spatial econometrics to analyse migration markets in metropolitan areas in Spain (1988-2010)

Xavier Franch, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Joaquin Recaño Valverde, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

The purpose of this paper is to describe the more contemporary evolution of the migration in different Metropolitan areas of Spain during the last two decades. We study migration trends of Metropolitan areas of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla and Bilbao. The territorial units of analysis are the Spanish municipalities and a classification of these municipality areas based on the Spanish Census of 1991 and 2001. The data come from three data sources elaborated by the National Institute of Statistics: 1) the Residential Variation Statistics that offers the migratory annual flows between the different Spanish municipalities 2) the Municipal Register which records municipality residents and it’s the Official Population since 1996 3) and the Spanish Population Census. Our analysis covers the period from 1988 to 2010. We analyse the internal migratory flows using spatial econometrics to identify significant spatial clusters and to provide a new approach of the migration in Metropolitan areas in Spain. According to this, we propose two spatial models to describe the trends of migration from Metropolitan areas to other municipalities and the trends of migration to these Metropolitan areas.