Obstacles and Catalysts of Productive Mobility in the United States

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Alfredo A. Romero Hal W. Snarr

Abstract

Of particular interest in economics, regional science, public policy, and other disciplines interested in migration processes, is the understanding of the factors that determine an individual 's or household's preferred residential location and the forces that might induce the individual or household to switch to another location . Using data from the Current Population Survey and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we investigate the dynamics of work-motivated household relocations over the period 1999-2010 by associating the likelihood of individuals moving to a different state or within the same state under different macroeconomic conditions and accounting for different sociodemographic factors. Our results indicate that home ownership status is an important inhibitor of migrations decision, especially during economic contractions . This phenomenon might help explain why labor markets do not clear rapidly during recessions. We also show that minority groups are far less likely to migrate than whites are even after adjusting by sociodemographic  characteristics.

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