IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rre/publsh/v24y1994i3p246-264.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Changes In The Demographic Determinants Of U.S. Population Mobility: 1940-80

Author

Listed:
  • Michael J. White

    (Brown University)

  • Peter R. Mueser

    (University of Missouri)

Abstract

As a rule of thumb. about one-fifth of all Americans change residence in a given year, and over the course of five years, about half of all persons change residence. While this generalization has remained roughly true over the last few decades, there have been appreciable shifts in the relative distribution among types of moves. Taking an integrated approach. we examine the choice to move locally, to migrate within a state, or to migrate between states over the period 1940-80. Using a multinomial logit model and U.S. census microdata, we test for the presence of changes in the determinants of residential mobility and migration and contrast such effects with the influence of shifting population composition. We demonstrate that the effects of age and education differ, sometimes appreciably, by type of mobility. There has been little change in the impacts of demographic characteristics on the propensities to make particular types of moves. Instead, we find that the increasing share of longer distance movement has been due to secular changes, most likely traced to improvements in transportation and communication, and a favorable shift in population composition, especially increased educational attainment. The association of demographic characteristics with intercounty and interstate change of residence has remained stable.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael J. White & Peter R. Mueser, 1994. "Changes In The Demographic Determinants Of U.S. Population Mobility: 1940-80," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 24(3), pages 246-264, Winter.
  • Handle: RePEc:rre:publsh:v24:y:1994:i:3:p:246-264
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://journal.srsa.org/ojs/index.php/RRS/article/view/24.3.3/pdf/
    File Function: To View On Journal Page
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: http://journal.srsa.org/ojs/index.php/RRS/article/download/24.3.3/477
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary Sandefur, 1985. "Variations in interstate migration of men across the early stages of the life cycle," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 22(3), pages 353-366, August.
    2. Greenwood, Michael J, 1969. "An Analysis of the Determinants of Geographic Labor Mobility in the United States," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(2), pages 189-194, May.
    3. Franklin Wilson, 1987. "Metropolitan and nonmetropolitan migration streams: 1935–1980," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 24(2), pages 211-228, May.
    4. Schwartz, Aba, 1976. "Migration, Age, and Education," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages 701-719, August.
    5. Bowles, Samuel, 1970. "Migration as Investment: Empirical Tests of the Human Investment Approach to Geographical Mobility," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 52(4), pages 356-362, November.
    6. Gary Sandefur & Wilbur Scott, 1981. "A dynamic analysis of migration: an assessment of the effects of age, family and career variables," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 18(3), pages 355-368, August.
    7. Graves, Philip E. & Linneman, Peter D., 1979. "Household migration: Theoretical and empirical results," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 383-404, July.
    8. Michael White & Peter Mueser, 1988. "Implications of boundary choice for the measurement of residential mobility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 25(3), pages 443-459, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rebhun, Uzi, 2002. "Directions, Magnitude, and Efficiency of Interregional Migration, 1970-1990: Jews and Whites in the United States Compared," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 32(1), pages 37-68, Winter/Sp.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jim Millington, 2000. "Migration and Age: The Effect of Age on Sensitivity to Migration Stimuli," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6), pages 521-533.
    2. Spilimbergo, Antonio & Ubeda, Luis, 2004. "Family attachment and the decision to move by race," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 478-497, May.
    3. Spilimbergo, Antonio & Ubeda, Luis, 2004. "A model of multiple equilibria in geographic labor mobility," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 107-123, February.
    4. Consuelo Gámez Amián & José Ignacio García Pérez, 2002. "Flujos Migratorios entre provincias andaluzas y entre éstas y el resto de España," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2002/01, Centro de Estudios Andaluces.
    5. Lahr, Michael L. & Gibbs, Robert M., 2002. "Mobility of Section 8 families in Alameda County," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 187-213, September.
    6. Hubert Jayet, 1996. "L'analyse économique des migrations, une synthèse critique," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 47(2), pages 193-226.
    7. Alfred Nucci & Charles Tolbert & Troy Blanchard & Michael Irwin, 2002. "Leaving Home: Modeling the Effect of Civic and Economic Structure on Individual Migration Patterns," Working Papers 02-16, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    8. John Odland & Mark Ellis, 1988. "Household organization and the interregional variation of out-migration rates," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 25(4), pages 567-579, November.
    9. Carren Ginsburg & Philippe Bocquier & Donatien Beguy & Sulaimon Afolabi & Orvalho Augusto & Karim Derra & Frank Odhiambo & Mark Otiende & Abdramane B. Soura & Pascal Zabre & Michael White & Mark Colli, 2016. "Human capital on the move: Education as a determinant of internal migration in selected INDEPTH surveillance populations in Africa," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(30), pages 845-884.
    10. Tolley, George S. & Jansma, J. Dean & Gamble, Hays B. & Madden, J. Patrick & Warland, Rex H. & Graves, Philip E. & Clawson, Marion, 1981. "PART II. Rural People, Communities, and Regions," AAEA Monographs, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, number 337227, january.
    11. Feridhanusetyawan, Tubagus, 1994. "Determinants of interstate migration in the United States: A search theory approach," ISU General Staff Papers 1994010108000012252, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    12. Richard Cebula, 1974. "Local government policies and migration," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 85-93, September.
    13. Mikaela Backman & Lina Bjerke, 2011. "Location of Talent," ERSA conference papers ersa10p415, European Regional Science Association.
    14. Satu Nivalainen, 2003. "Who move to rural areas? Micro Evidence from Finland," ERSA conference papers ersa03p214, European Regional Science Association.
    15. Ann P. Bartel, 1980. "The Economics of Migration: An Empirical Analysis with Special Referenceto the Role of Job Mobility," NBER Working Papers 0198, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Cebula, Richard, 1973. "Local Government Policies and Migration: An Analysis for SMSAs in the United States, 1965-1970," MPRA Paper 50068, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 02 Feb 1974.
    17. Fitzpatrick, Maria D. & Jones, Damon, 2016. "Post-baccalaureate migration and merit-based scholarships," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 155-172.
    18. Bodvarsson, Örn B. & Hou, Jack W. & Shen, Kailing, 2014. "Aging and Migration in a Transition Economy: The Case of China," IZA Discussion Papers 8351, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Chi, Guangqing & Voss, Paul, 2005. "Migration Decision-making: A Hierarchical Regression Approach," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 35(2), pages 1-12.
    20. Cebula, Richard, 1984. "Living Costs, The Quality of Life, and the "Sunbelt" vs "Frostbelt" Battle in the United states," MPRA Paper 52055, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rre:publsh:v24:y:1994:i:3:p:246-264. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tammy Leonard & Lei Zhang (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.srsa.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.