Declining Migration within the US: The Role of the Labor Market

Raven Molloy (), Christopher L. Smith () and Abigail Wozniak
Additional contact information
Raven Molloy: Federal Reserve Board of Governors
Christopher L. Smith: Federal Reserve Board of Governors

No 8149, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Interstate migration has decreased steadily since the 1980s. We show that this trend is not primarily related to demographic and socioeconomic factors, but instead appears to be connected to a concurrent secular decline in labor market transitions. We explore a number of reasons for the declines in geographic and labor market transitions, and find the strongest support for explanations related to a decrease in the net benefit to changing employers. Our preferred interpretation is that the distribution of relevant outside offers has shifted in a way that has made labor market transitions, and thus geographic transitions, less desirable to workers.

Keywords: job transitions; labor market transitions; migration decline; migration; returns to tenure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 J6 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2014-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-lma, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (48)

Published - published in: Demography, 2017, 54 (2), 631-653.

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Related works:
Working Paper: Declining Migration within the U.S.: The Role of the Labor Market (2014)
Working Paper: Declining Migration wihin the US: The Role of the Labor Market (2013)
Working Paper: Declining migration within the US: the role of the labor market (2013)
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