Commuting, Migration, and Rural‐Urban Population Dynamics

Abstract

Over the past 25 years social scientists attempting to explain the dramatic changes in the relative distribution of urban and rural population growth have gravitated toward two competing explanations. The "regional restructuring hypothesis" holds that changes in the spatial distribution of employment opportunities have been dominant whereas the "deconcentration hypothesis" attributes these changes to changes in residential preferences of workers and consumers. We develop an empirical test of these two explanations based on whether commuting and migration are positively or negatively related after controlling for other economic factors. Our econometric results support the deconcentration hypothesis. Copyright 2000 Blackwell Publishers

Telecommuting and residential locational preferences: a case study of the Netherlands

“…In general, it is assumed that residential locational preferences are inXuenced by housing characteristics such as cost, size, and amenities and by the socioeconomic characteristics of the occupants, such as age, income, gender, and household composition (Renkow and Hoover 2000). According to Nijkamp et al (1993), the life course rather than economic motives is the predominant factor in residential relocation decisions.…”

People's preferences for commuting in sparsely populated areas: The case of Sweden

“…Commuting has increased substantially over the past decades, in Sweden as well as in many other Western countries (Green et al 1999;Renkow and Hower 2000;Sultana and Weber 2007). Many factors have contributed to this development, including a lower migration propensity as mentioned above, as well as increased participation by women in the labor force, higher education levels and greater specialization among workers, improved infrastructure and the availability of faster travel modes, etc.…”

Are Commuting and Residential Mobility Decisions Simultaneous?: The Case of Catalonia, Spain

“…The outcome of the two decisions determines workers' commuting patterns. For example, a job change or a move can make the new home-workplace combination sub-optimal, meaning that either a new move or a new job location is needed in the long term 1 (see, for example, ZAX, 1991ZAX, , 1994KAIN, 1991 or RENKOW andHOOVER, 2000). So a model that concentrates on only one of these choices is clearly partial, and can be improved if both decisions are addressed simultaneously.…”