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Title: The Effect of Expected Income on Individual Migration Decisions
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Kennan, John
Walker, James R.
The Effect of Expected Income on Individual Migration Decisions
Working Paper 2003-07, Social Systems Research Institute, Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2003.
Also: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~jkennan/research/jkjwPaper_March03.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Keyword(s): High School Completion/Graduates; Male Sample; Migration; Wage Differentials

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The paper develops a tractable econometric model of optimal migration, focusing on expected income as the main economic influence on migration. The model improves on previous work in two respects: it covers optimal sequences of location decisions (rather than a single once-for-all choice), and it allows for many alternative location choices. The model is estimated using panel data from the NLSY on white males with a high school education. Our main conclusion is that interstate migration decisions are influenced to a substantial extent by income prospects. On the other hand we find no evidence of a response to geographic differences in wage distributions. Instead, the results suggest that the link between income and migration decisions is driven by a tendency to move in search of a better locational match when the income realization in the current location is unfavorable...We analyze the migration decisions of men aged 20-35, using the non-military subsample of the NLSY79, observed over the period 1979-1992. In order to obtain a relatively homogeneous sample, we consider only white high-school graduates with no college education, using only the years after schooling is completed.
Bibliography Citation
Kennan, John and James R. Walker. "The Effect of Expected Income on Individual Migration Decisions." Working Paper 2003-07, Social Systems Research Institute, Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2003.