IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/growch/v39y2008i1p58-94.html

Quality of Life and the Migration of the College‐Educated: A Life‐Course Approach

Author

Listed:
  • RONALD L. WHISLER
  • BRIGITTE S. WALDORF
  • GORDON F. MULLIGAN
  • DAVID A. PLANE

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines how the college‐educated population—segmented into selective demographic groups, from young adults to the elderly—differentially values quality‐of‐life (QOL) indicators of metropolitan areas in the United States. Using data from the 2000 Census and the 1997 Places Rated Almanac, out‐migration patterns are shown to depend jointly upon stage in the life course, the spatial‐demographic setting, and QOL characteristics. An abundance of cultural and recreational amenities lowers out‐migration rates of young college‐educated. For the older college‐educated population, the revealed preferences shift toward concerns for safety and a strong preference for milder climates. The study also finds significantly lower out‐migration rates for metropolitan areas with growing human capital. In light of shifting age distributions and rising educational attainment levels, the results have important implications for the emergence of new migration patterns and the concentration of human capital.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald L. Whisler & Brigitte S. Waldorf & Gordon F. Mulligan & David A. Plane, 2008. "Quality of Life and the Migration of the College‐Educated: A Life‐Course Approach," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 58-94, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:growch:v:39:y:2008:i:1:p:58-94
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2257.2007.00405.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2257.2007.00405.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-2257.2007.00405.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gyourko, Joseph & Tracy, Joseph, 1991. "The Structure of Local Public Finance and the Quality of Life," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(4), pages 774-806, August.
    2. Vijay K. Mathur, 1999. "Human Capital-Based Strategy for Regional Economic Development," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 13(3), pages 203-216, August.
    3. Mincer, Jacob, 1978. "Family Migration Decisions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 749-773, October.
    4. Scott, Allen J. (ed.), 2001. "Global City-Regions: Trends, Theory, Policy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297994.
    5. Graves, Philip E., 1979. "A life-cycle empirical analysis of migration and climate, by race," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 135-147, April.
    6. Rappaport, Jordan, 2007. "Moving to nice weather," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 375-398, May.
    7. Dora L. Costa & Matthew E. Kahn, 2000. "Power Couples: Changes in the Locational Choice of the College Educated, 1940–1990," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(4), pages 1287-1315.
    8. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    9. Paul D. Gottlieb & George Joseph, 2006. "College‐To‐Work Migration Of Technology Graduates And Holders Of Doctorates Within The United States," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 627-659, October.
    10. Dwight W. Adamson & David E. Clark & Mark D. Partridge, 2004. "Do Urban Agglomeration Effects and Household Amenities have a Skill Bias?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 201-224, May.
    11. Brian J. Cushing, 1993. "The Effect of the Social Welfare System on Metropolitan Migration in the US, by Income Group, Gender and Family Structure," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 30(2), pages 325-337, March.
    12. 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.
    13. Blomquist, Glenn C & Berger, Mark C & Hoehn, John P, 1988. "New Estimates of Quality of Life in Urban Areas," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(1), pages 89-107, March.
    14. Mueser Peter R. & Graves Philip E., 1995. "Examining the Role of Economic Opportunity and Amenities in Explaining Population Redistribution," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 176-200, March.
    15. Richard Florida, 2002. "Bohemia and economic geography," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 55-71, January.
    16. Wallace E. Huffman & Tubagus Feridhanusetyawan, 2007. "Migration, Fixed Costs, and Location-Specific Amenities: A Hazard Analysis for a Panel of Males," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(2), pages 368-382.
    17. Yolanda Kodrzycki, 2001. "Migration of recent college graduates: evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, pages 13-34.
    18. Larry A. Sjaastad, 1970. "The Costs and Returns of Human Migration," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Harry W. Richardson (ed.), Regional Economics, chapter 9, pages 115-133, Palgrave Macmillan.
    19. Greenwood, Michael J, et al, 1991. "Migration, Regional Equilibrium, and the Estimation of Compensating Differentials," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(5), pages 1382-1390, December.
    20. Greenwood, Michael J. & Mueser, Peter R. & Plane, David A. & Schlottmann, Alan M., 1991. "New Directions in Migration Research: Perspectives from Some North American Regional Science Disciplines," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 25(4), pages 237-270.
    21. Schaffer, Peter V., 1987. "A family model of migration," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 263-269.
    22. Satu Nivalainen, 2004. "Determinants of family migration: short moves vs. long moves," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 17(1), pages 157-175, February.
    23. M J Greenwood, 1973. "Urban Economic Growth and Migration: Their Interaction," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 5(1), pages 91-112, February.
    24. Andrei Rogers, 1988. "Age patterns of elderly migration: An international comparison," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 25(3), pages 355-370, August.
    25. Masayo Wakabayashi & Geoffrey J. D. Hewings, 2007. "Life-Cycle Changes In Consumption Behavior: Age-Specific And Regional Variations," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 315-337, May.
    26. Huffman, Wallace & Feridhanusetyawan, Tubagus, 2007. "Migration, Fixed Costs and Location-Specific Amenities: A Hazard Rate Analysis for a Panel of Males," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12781, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    27. Basker, Emek, 2018. "Education, Job Search, and Migration," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 48(4), November.
    28. Li Swain & Steven Garasky, 2007. "Migration Decisions of Dual-earner Families: An Application of Multilevel Modeling," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 151-170, March.
    29. Julie Berry Cullen & Steven D. Levitt, 1999. "Crime, Urban Flight, And The Consequences For Cities," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(2), pages 159-169, May.
    30. Julian Wolpert, 1965. "Behavioral Aspects Of The Decision To Migrate," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 159-169, January.
    31. David A. Plane & Frank Heins, 2003. "Age articulation of U.S. inter-metropolitan migration flows," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 37(1), pages 107-130, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Brian Cushing & Jacques Poot, 2004. "Crossing boundaries and borders: Regional science advances in migration modelling," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Raymond J. G. M. Florax & David A. Plane (ed.), Fifty Years of Regional Science, pages 317-338, Springer.
    2. Shelby Gerking, 1998. "Spatial economic aspects of the environment and environmental policy: New directions for research," ERSA conference papers ersa98p384, European Regional Science Association.
    3. Charlotta Mellander & Richard Florida & Kevin Stolarick, 2011. "Here to Stay—The Effects of Community Satisfaction on the Decision to Stay," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 5-24.
    4. Curtis Lockwood Reynolds & Amanda L. Weinstein, 2021. "Gender differences in quality of life and preferences for location‐specific amenities across cities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 916-943, November.
    5. W. Mark Brown & Darren M. Scott, 2012. "Human Capital Location Choice: Accounting For Amenities And Thick Labor Markets," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(5), pages 787-808, December.
    6. Martin A. Carree & Kristin Kronenberg, 2014. "Locational Choices and the Costs of Distance: Empirical Evidence for Dutch Graduates," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(4), pages 420-435, October.
    7. Chen, Yong & Rosenthal, Stuart S., 2008. "Local amenities and life-cycle migration: Do people move for jobs or fun?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 519-537, November.
    8. Reinhard A. Weisser, 2019. "The price of mobility," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 39(1), pages 25-64, February.
    9. Douglas J. Krupka, 2009. "Location‐Specific Human Capital, Location Choice And Amenity Demand," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(5), pages 833-854, December.
    10. Hand, Michael S. & Thacher, Jennifer A. & McCollum, Daniel W. & Berrens, Robert P., 2008. "Forest Amenities and Location Choice in the Southwest," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 33(2), pages 1-22.
    11. Waltert, Fabian & Schläpfer, Felix, 2010. "Landscape amenities and local development: A review of migration, regional economic and hedonic pricing studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 141-152, December.
    12. Mark D. Partridge, 2010. "The duelling models: NEG vs amenity migration in explaining US engines of growth," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(3), pages 513-536, August.
    13. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Tobias D. Ketterer, 2012. "Do Local Amenities Affect The Appeal Of Regions In Europe For Migrants?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 535-561, October.
    14. McDuff, DeForest, 2011. "Demand substitution across US cities: Observable similarity and home price correlation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 1-14, July.
    15. Alessandra Faggian & M. Rose Olfert & Mark D. Partridge, 2011. "Inferring regional well-being from individual revealed preferences: the 'voting with your feet' approach," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 5(1), pages 163-180.
    16. Yong Chen & David J. Lewis & Bruce Weber, 2016. "Conservation Land Amenities And Regional Economies: A Postmatching Difference-In-Differences Analysis Of The Northwest Forest Plan," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 373-394, June.
    17. Clark, David E. & Herrin, William E. & Knapp, Thomas A. & White, Nancy E., 2006. "Incomplete Compensation and Migration Behavior: Has Anything Changed Between 1990 and 2000?," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 36(2), pages 1-13.
    18. Paul Cheshire & Stefano Magrini, 2006. "Population growth in European cities: Weather matters - but only nationally," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 23-37.
    19. Fabian Waltert & Felix Schlaepfer, 2007. "The role of landscape amenities in regional development: a survey of migration, regional economic and hedonic pricing studies," SOI - Working Papers 0710, Socioeconomic Institute - University of Zurich.
    20. Partridge, Mark D. & Rickman, Dan S. & Olfert, M. Rose & Ali, Kamar, 2012. "Dwindling U.S. internal migration: Evidence of spatial equilibrium or structural shifts in local labor markets?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 375-388.

    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:bla:growch:v:39:y:2008:i:1:p:58-94. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0017-4815 .

    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.