Do the Elderly "Vote with Their Feet"?

Karen Smith Conway and Andrew J Houtenville

Public Choice, 1998, vol. 97, issue 4, 663-85

Abstract: This research explores whether the elderly 'vote with their feet' by migrating to states with government policies that treat them favorably. A theoretical model is presented that clarifies the effects of cost-of-living, amenities, and the public sector on migration decisions and that informs our empirical analysis. Using state-level migration data from the 1990 Census, the authors estimate out-migration and in-migration equations that suggest that the public sector is an important determinant of elderly migration but in sometimes unexpected ways. Their results lend some support for the Tiebout hypothesis but they also raise serious questions about the nature of the elderly's preferences for government policy. Copyright 1998 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Date: 1998
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