An investigation of determinants of youth propensity to emigrate from Bosnia and Herzegovina

The tendency to leave and the actual number of people leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been increasing in the last few years. We investigate the main determinants of people leaving BiH, with special focus on youth. Using the newest available data from USAID’s National Survey of Citizens Perceptions from 2017, we investigate this issue by using probit regressions. Attitudes and perceptions related to emigration from BiH are compared between two groups – youth up to the age of 30 and the rest of respondents. The analysis includes socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, their sentiment and satisfaction with life conditions, public services and government. The results imply that young respondents (under the age of 30) are more likely to consider leaving the country than older ones (above the age of 30). The results also show a significant positive effect of dissatisfaction with public services and high level of corruption on tendency to leave the country. The estimation of interaction effects imply that corruption is more prominent reason for emigration among youth than older respondents. Hence, the main issues which should be addressed to stop the trend of emigration are the improvement in the quality of public services and reduction in corruption.