Migration Networks and Location Decisions: Evidence from U.S. Mass Migration

Bryan Stuart and Evan Taylor
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Evan Taylor: University of Chicago

Working Papers from The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of birth town migration networks on location decisions. We study over one million long-run location decisions made during two landmark migration episodes by African Americans from the U.S. South and whites from the Great Plains. We develop a new method to estimate the strength of migration networks for each receiving and sending location. Our estimates imply that when one randomly chosen African American moves from a birth town to a destination county, then 1.9 additional black migrants make the same move on average. For white migrants from the Great Plains, the average is only 0.4. Networks were particularly important in connecting black migrants with attractive employment opportunities and played a larger role in less costly moves.

Keywords: migration networks; location decisions; social interactions; Great Migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 N32 O15 R23 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-int, nep-mig, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www2.gwu.edu/~iiep/assets/docs/papers/2017WP/StuartIIEP2017-26.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Migration Networks and Location Decisions: Evidence from US Mass Migration (2021)
Working Paper: Migration Networks and Location Decisions: Evidence from U.S. Mass Migration (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2017-26

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