A common finding in analyses of geographic mobility is a strong association between past movement and current mobility, a phenomenon that has given rise to the so called ‘moverstayer model’. We argue in this paper that one of the driving forces behind this heterogeneity is the strength of local social ties. We use data from the BHPS on the location of the three closest friends and the frequency of contacts. We estimate the processes of friendship formation and residential mobility jointly, allowing for correlation between the two processes. Our results show that the location of the closest friends matters substantially in the mobility decision, and matters more than the frequency of contacts.
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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number
2209.
Find related papers by JEL classification: J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Social Norms and Social Capital; Social Networks Economic Anthropology
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