Costs and benefits of rural-urban migration: Evidence from India

Clément Imbert and John Papp

Journal of Development Economics, 2020, vol. 146, issue C

Abstract: This paper provides new evidence on rural-urban migration decisions in developing countries. Using original survey data from rural India, we show that seasonal migrants prefer to earn 35 percent less on local public works rather than incur the cost of migrating. Structural estimates suggest that the fixed cost of migration is small, and can be entirely explained by travel costs and income risk. In contrast, the flow cost of migration is high. We argue that higher living costs in the city explain only a small part of the flow cost of migration and that most of it is non-monetary.

Keywords: Internal migration; Workfare programs; India; Urban; Rural (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H53 J22 J61 O15 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Costs and Benefits of Rural-Urban Migration: Evidence from India (2020)
Working Paper: Costs and Benefits of Rural-Urban Migration: Evidence from India (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:146:y:2020:i:c:s0304387820300481

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2020.102473

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