Dwindling U.S. internal migration: Evidence of spatial equilibrium or structural shifts in local labor markets?

Mark Partridge, Dan Rickman, Rose Olfert () and Kamar Ali ()
Additional contact information
Rose Olfert: University of Saskatchewan
Kamar Ali: University of Lethbridge

No 1002, Economics Working Paper Series from Oklahoma State University, Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business

Abstract: This paper examines whether the significant downward shift in U.S. gross migration rates after 2000 is indicative of the economy nearing a stationary spatial equilibrium. Nearness to spatial equilibrium would imply that site-specific factors such as amenities and location within the urban hierarchy have little influence on migration because their values have been capitalized into prices, causing interregional utility levels to become approximately equal. Yet, in an examination of U.S. counties, we find empirical evidence of only a mild ebbing of natural amenity-based migration after 2000 and little slowing of population redistribution from peripheral towards core urban areas. Instead, the primary finding is a downward shift in the responsiveness of population to spatially asymmetric demand shocks post-2000, and associated increased responsiveness of local area labor supply, more consistent with European regional labor markets. Quantile regression analysis suggests that this shift does not relate to a difference in regional labor market tightness across the two decades

Keywords: migration; spatial equilibrium; economic geography; regional science; urban economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2010-12
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://business.okstate.edu/site-files/docs/ecls-working-papers/OKSWPS1002.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found

Related works:
Journal Article: Dwindling U.S. internal migration: Evidence of spatial equilibrium or structural shifts in local labor markets? (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:okl:wpaper:1002

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Working Paper Series from Oklahoma State University, Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Harounan Kazianga ().