IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedpwp/103268.html

Fast Locations and Slowing Mobility

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Coate
  • Kyle Mangum

Abstract

This paper shows the declining trend in internal migration in the United States is primarily due to increasing home attachment in “fast locations,” areas with relatively high rates of population turnover. These locations were population growth destinations in the 20th century, with transient populations that settled as regional population growth converged. The qualitative patterns of the U.S. experience can be generated by a model of location choice in heterogeneous regions with overlapping generations when the population has a home bias that varies endogenously with the history of population change. Using a novel measure of home attachment, this paper estimates a structural model of migration that distinguishes moving frictions from home utility. Simulations quantify channels of the mobility decline. Rising home attachment accounts for much of the decline, predominantly in fast locations. Population aging explains most of the remainder but in a more spatially neutral way.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Coate & Kyle Mangum, 2026. "Fast Locations and Slowing Mobility," Working Papers 26-26, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedpwp:103268
    DOI: 10.21799/frbp.wp.2026.26
    Note: supersedes 19-49/R
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/working-papers/2026/wp26-26.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.21799/frbp.wp.2026.26?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. Lkhagvasuren, Damba, 2012. "Big locational unemployment differences despite high labor mobility," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(8), pages 798-814.
    2. Damba Lkhagvasuren, 2005. "Big Locational Differences in Unemployment Despite High Labor Mobility," Working Papers 12002, Concordia University, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2012.
    3. DaVanzo, Julie, 1983. "Repeat Migration in the United States: Who Moves Back and Who Moves On?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(4), pages 552-559, November.
    4. Ryan A. Decker & John Haltiwanger & Ron S. Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2016. "Declining Business Dynamism: What We Know and the Way Forward," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 203-207, May.
    5. Patrick Bayer & Robert McMillan & Alvin Murphy & Christopher Timmins, 2016. "A Dynamic Model of Demand for Houses and Neighborhoods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 893-942, May.
    6. Matthew J. Notowidigdo, 2020. "The Incidence of Local Labor Demand Shocks," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(3), pages 687-725.
    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. Lutgen, Vanessa & Van der Linden, Bruno, 2015. "Regional equilibrium unemployment theory at the age of the Internet," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 50-67.
    2. repec:ehu:ikerla:15485 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Carlos Carrillo‐Tudela & Ludo Visschers, 2023. "Unemployment and Endogenous Reallocation Over the Business Cycle," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(3), pages 1119-1153, May.
    4. Kuhn, Moritz & Manovskii, Iourii & Qiu, Xincheng, 2026. "The Geography of job creation and job destruction," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Deschamps, Pierre & Wilemme, Guillaume, 2025. "Local labor market dynamics and agglomeration effects," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    6. Parkhomenko, Andrii, 2016. "Opportunity to Move: Macroeconomic Effects of Relocation Subsidies," MPRA Paper 75256, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Marius Brülhart & Jayson Danton & Raphaël Parchet & Jörg Schläpfer, 2025. "Who Bears the Burden of Local Taxes?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 464-505, February.
    8. Hauser, Daniela & Seneca, Martin, 2022. "Labor mobility in a monetary union," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    9. Keisuke Kawata & Kentaro Nakajima & Yasuhiro Sato, 2013. "Analyzing the impact of labor market integration," IDEC DP2 Series 3-7, Hiroshima University, Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation (IDEC).
    10. Kohler, Wilhelm & Müller, Gernot J. & Wellmann, Susanne, 2023. "Risk sharing in currency unions: The migration channel," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    11. Carrillo-Tudela, Carlos & Visschers, Ludo, 2014. "Unemployment and Endogenous Reallocation over the Business Cycle," 2007 Annual Meeting, July 29-August 1, 2007, Portland, Oregon TN 2015-35, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    12. Braun, Sebastian Till & Weber, Henning, 2021. "How do regional labor markets adjust to immigration? A dynamic analysis for post-war Germany," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    13. Sargent, Kristina, 2024. "Unpacking migration costs: Heterogeneous effects in EU labor markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    14. Sargent, Kristina, 2023. "The labor market impacts of Brexit: Migration and the European union," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    15. Auray Stéphane & Fuller David & Lkhagvasuren Damba & Terracol Antoine, 2017. "Dynamic Comparative Advantage, Directed Mobility Across Sectors, and Wages," Working Papers 2017-59, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    16. Antonia Díaz & Álvaro Jáñez & Felix Wellschmied, 2023. "Geographic Mobility Over the Life-cycle," Documentos de Trabajo del ICAE 2023-01, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Instituto Complutense de Análisis Económico.
    17. repec:ehu:ikerla:30207 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. David Fuller & Damba Lkhagvasuren & Antoine Terracol & Stephane Auray, 2014. "A Dynamic Analysis of Sectoral Mobility, Worker Mismatch, and the Wage-Tenure Profile," 2014 Meeting Papers 876, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    19. Lalé, Etienne, 2017. "Worker reallocation across occupations: Confronting data with theory," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 51-68.
    20. Damba Lkhagvasuren & Roy Nitulescu, 2013. "Sectoral Mobility and Unemployment with Heterogeneous Moving Costs," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 339-358, September.
    21. Paul Gomme & Damba Lkhagvasuren, 2011. "The Cyclicality of Search Intensity in a Competitive Search Model," Working Papers 11003, Concordia University, Department of Economics.
    22. Paul Gomme & Gazi Mohammad Jamil & Tatyana Koreshkova & Damba Lkhagvasuren, 2019. "An Analysis of the Ins and Outs of Migration within Canada," CIRANO Project Reports 2019rp-14, CIRANO.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • C50 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:fip:fedpwp:103268. 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: Beth Paul (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbphus.html .

    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.