The search for engines to power rural economic growth has gone beyond the traditional boundaries of the food and fiber sector to industries such as tourism and to schemes such as attracting metropolitan workers to commuter communities with rural amenities. A group that has been somewhat overlooked is retirees, who may wish to trade in urban or suburban lifestyles for a more peaceful rural retirement. An industry that has been neglected is the health care industry, which is the most rapidly growing industry nationally and of particular interest to retirees and aging populations. This paper examines the importance of rural health care services in attracting migrants age 65+ to rural counties in Michigan. Results indicate that the number of health care workers has a positive effect on net in-migration, and that this effect is large and statistically significant for the 70+ age group. Implications for rural development strategies are discussed.
Key Words: elder migration, health care, rural developmentIn recent years the search for an economically sustainable basis for rural communities has moved away from reliance on traditional agriculture or resource extraction as the primary engine of economic growth, or even sustainability. 1 Robinson, Lyson, and Christy (2002) argue that globalization increases the difficulty of creating an economically viable rural community based on traditional agriculture and markets. Barkley and Wilson (1992) examine alternative agriculture (including value added) as an engine of rural economic growth, but find that the possibilities for income and employment generation are limited. Kim, Marcouiller, and Deller (2005) emphasize that many of the resources that provide the basis for extractive industries also serve as rural ameniJames Oehmke and Satoshi Tsukamoto are Professor and Ph.D. Student in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Lori Post is Assistant Professor in the Department of Telecommunications, Information Studies and Media, and Assistant Dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, also at Michigan State University 1 Meaningful definitions of rural sustainability are diverse (Gold 1999). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2007) defines sustainability as generating a high level of economic prosperity while protecting natural systems. A common thread among the definitions is that meaningful employment is a necessary condition for economic sustainability, and we focus on employment in our discussion.ties-for example, forests. A literature is emerging on amenity-based rural sustainability (e.g., Che 2003, Bukenya, Gebremedhin, and Shaeffer 2003, Nzaku and Bukenya 2005. Complementary to this literature are investigations into how rural amenities can attract migrants to the area. For example, Renkow (2003) suggests that the emergence of a labor force choosing to live in rural areas to take advantage of rural amenities and commuting to metropolitan jobs can have positive effects on rural economies. Goetz a...