Cover: Does unemployment affect migration?: evidence from micro data

Does unemployment affect migration?: evidence from micro data

by Julie DaVanzo

Purchase Print Copy

 FormatList Price Price
Add to Cart Paperback27 pages $20.00 $16.00 20% Web Discount

Aggregate data cannot show whether an estimated positive relationship between outmigration and the origin employment rate is due to the unemployed being more likely to migrate, or to people being more likely to leave areas with high unemployment rates regardless of their own employment status. This paper investigates these relationships and suggests that families whose heads are unemployed or dissatisfied with their jobs are more likely to migrate than those whose heads are not searching for different jobs. It is found that local economic conditions (origin unemployment rates) do affect outmigration, but only within the subset of people most seriously affected by them--the unemployed. Hypotheses were tested in a multiple regression analysis of longitudinal data on households from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, consisting of 1605 white couples.

This report is part of the RAND Corporation Paper series. The paper was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1948 to 2003 that captured speeches, memorials, and derivative research, usually prepared on authors' own time and meant to be the scholarly or scientific contribution of individual authors to their professional fields. Papers were less formal than reports and did not require rigorous peer review.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.