The effect of local ties, wages, and housing costs on migration decisions

Marios Michaelides ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Previous research on migration has focused more on the effect of wage differences between the destination and the origin on migration and less on how non-pecuniary attachments workers have to their current location may affect their migration decisions. In this paper, we examine how the presence of a strong social network and desirable location amenities in the current location may deter individual migration across U.S. metropolitan areas. Our empirical results show that, controlling for wage and housing cost differences between metropolitan areas, workers with strong attachments to their current location are significantly less likely to move. Interestingly, the effects of a strong social network and desirable location amenities on individual migration decisions are more important than the effect of wage or housing cost differentials between the destination and the origin.

Keywords: migration; worker mobility; mobility costs; location amenities; wages; housing costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J01 J3 J6 R2 R3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-12-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-mig, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The effect of local ties, wages, and housing costs on migration decisions (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:20379

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