Faculty Publications

Occupational Change, Employer Change, Internal Migration, And Earnings

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Earnings, Human migration, Labor, Occupation

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Regional Science and Urban Economics

Volume

27

Issue

1

First Page

1

Last Page

15

Abstract

In this paper I use microdata from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to measure the financial returns to intercounty and interstate migration for individuals in a temporal framework accounting for gains that accrue over time. Earnings are estimated for a pooled sample of migrants and non-migrants in a two-stage procedure correcting for a self-selection bias. To account for the indirect effects of migration on earnings, explanatory variables are created by interacting migration status with: (1) occupational change, (2) employer change and (3) changes in both occupation and employer. These interaction terms are then included in the earnings functions. Earnings are estimated for three years subsequent to the migration decision to account for the financial returns to migration accruing over time. Results indicate that, when estimating earnings, the use of a simple migration dummy variable will mask the indirect effects of migration on earnings.

Department

Department of Economics

Original Publication Date

1-1-1997

DOI of published version

10.1016/s0166-0462(96)02142-4

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