Schooling and the Great Migration
In 1900, 90 percent of America?s black population lived in the South and only 4.3 percent of those born in the region era living elsewhere. By 1950 the proportion of blacks living in the South had declined to 68 percent and 19.6 percent of those born in the region had left it. Using samples drawn from the public use tapes of the 1900, 1940, and 1950 censuses I show that better-educated blacks were far more likely to leave the South than less-educated ones. There was, as well, a feedback effect black school enrollment increased in states that had previously experienced high rates of black out-migration. Econometric analysis of the determinants of black out-migration suggests that the better-educated were more likely to migrate because schooling lowered the costs of migrating, possibly by increasing awareness of distant labor market opportunities and the ability to assimilate into a different social and economic environment.
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| Length: | |
| Date of creation: | Jan 1988 |
| Date of revision: | |
| Publication status: | published as "'To the Promised Land': Education and the Black Exodus," Chapter 7 of Robert A. Margo, Race and Schooling in the South, 1880-1950: An Economic History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. |
| Handle: | RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2697 |
| Note: | DAE |
| Contact details of provider: | Postal: Phone: 617-868-3900 Web page: http://www.nber.orgEmail: More information through EDIRC
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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Greenwood, Michael J, 1975. "Research on Internal Migration in the United States: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 397-433, June.
- Margo, Robert A, 1984.
"Accumulation of Property by Southern Blacks before World War I: Comment and Further Evidence,"
American Economic Review,
American Economic Association, vol. 74(4), pages 768-76, September.
- Robert A. Margo, 1983. "Accumulation of Property by Southern Blacks Before World War I: Commentand Further Evidence," NBER Working Papers 1200, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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