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This paper examines the effects of housing costs on net migration in Germany, a country with a polycentric structure. We apply a panel data estimation framework with a large array of unit, time, and regional fixed effects to close to 400 individual counties for the period of 2002 to 2018. Our findings suggest a strong and negative relation between residential land prices and net migration. We conclude that higher land prices can largely offset the additional amenities factored into housing costs and hence cause negative effects on migration. We show that our results are robust to various control specifications, including the addition of variables such as income, education, and age structure, and the use of time lags. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Protestant social welfare organization as the largest employer in Germany. Together with the German Caritas group, it is the largest service business in Europe. The history, research direction, and social welfare practices of the deaconry are presented, as well as a discussion of its Heidelberg University Institute.