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Migration when Social Preferences are Ordinal: Steady-state Population Distribution and Social Welfare

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  • Oded Stark

Abstract

This paper adds three dimensions to the received literature: it models migration when the individuals’ preferences regarding their relative income are ordinal, it works out the resulting spatial steady state distribution of the individuals, and it shows that the aggregate of the individuals’ migration choices in the spatial steady state distribution sums up to the social optimum. This finding does not apply when the individuals’ preferences regarding their relative income are cardinal. We highlight the importance of the assumption about the nature of the individuals’ social preferences (whether ordinal or cardinal) to studying and predicting their migration behavior, and to elucidating the consequences of that behavior for social welfare.
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Suggested Citation

  • Oded Stark, 2017. "Migration when Social Preferences are Ordinal: Steady-state Population Distribution and Social Welfare," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 84(336), pages 647-666, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:84:y:2017:i:336:p:647-666
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    2. Stark, Oded & Fan, C. Simon, 2011. "Migration for degrading work as an escape from humiliation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 241-247, March.
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    21. Kuhnen, Camelia M. & Tymula, Agnieszka, 2008. "Rank expectations, feedback and social hierarchies," MPRA Paper 13428, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jan 2009.
    22. Stark, Oded, 2013. "Stressful Integration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-9.
    23. Alain Cohn & Ernst Fehr & Benedikt Herrmann & Frédéric Schneider, 2014. "Social Comparison And Effort Provision: Evidence From A Field Experiment," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 877-898, August.
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    26. Hyll, Walter & Schneider, Lutz, 2014. "Relative deprivation and migration preferences," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 334-337.
    27. Stark, Oded & Micevska, Maja & Mycielski, Jerzy, 2009. "Relative poverty as a determinant of migration: Evidence from Poland," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 103(3), pages 119-122, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Oded STARK & Wiktor Budzinski, 2019. "Repercussions of Negatively Selective Migration for the Behavior of Non-Migrants when Preferences Are Social," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 85(2), pages 165-179, June.
    2. Bilancini, Ennio & Boncinelli, Leonardo, 2019. "Wage inequality, labor income taxes, and the notion of social status," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 13, pages 1-35.
    3. Oded Stark & Grzegorz Kosiorowski, 2023. "A pure theory of population distribution when preferences are ordinal," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 71(2), pages 317-342, October.
    4. Stefan Jestl & Mathias Moser & Anna Katharina Raggl, 2021. "Cannot keep up with the Joneses: how relative deprivation pushes internal migration in Austria," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 49(2), pages 210-231, November.
    5. Stark, Oded, 2022. "Risk-laden migration as a response to relative deprivation: A hypothesis," Discussion Papers 329580, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    6. Ruxanda Berlinschi & Jan Fidrmuc, 2018. "Comfort and Conformity: A Culture-based Theory of Migration," CESifo Working Paper Series 7294, CESifo.
    7. Shamsuddin, Mrittika & Katsaiti, Marina Selini & El Anshasy, Amany A., 2022. "Income rank and income concerns: What correlates with international migration intentions?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 490-505.
    8. Stark, Holger & Kosiorowski, Grzegorz, 2023. "A Pure Theory of Population Distribution When Preferences Are Ordinal," IZA Discussion Papers 15923, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • C62 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Existence and Stability Conditions of Equilibrium
    • D50 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - General
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • R13 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General Equilibrium and Welfare Economic Analysis of Regional Economies
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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