Spatial Heterogeneity in Amenity and Labor Market Migration

Abstract

The disequilibrium and equilibrium models of migration disagree on how local amenities and labor market dynamics influence regional in-migration. Research into migration motives and decision-making show that migration for some individuals is mainly driven by proximity to the labor market, while migration for others is mainly amenity driven. As this is an ongoing process, it should result in a spatial sorting based on migration motives. This means that global models explaining in-migration underestimate the influence of both factors through averaging out of the coefficients across these diverse regions. In this article, we compare a local and a global model explaining in-migration through residential quality and labor market proximity. We find significant differences in the influence of the explanatory variables between regions. Demonstrating this spatial heterogeneity shows that the impacts of factors underpinning migration vary across regions. This result highlights the importance of the regional context in anticipating and designing regional policy concerning population dynamics.

Toward Job or Amenity?: Evaluating the Locational Choice of Internal Migrants in China

“…Using data from Germany and Sweden, Arntz (2010) and Niedomysl and Hansen (2010) also supported the predominance of job considerations. Using data from the Netherlands, Rijnks, Koster, and McCann (2018) emphasized that there exists spatial heterogeneity in that the impacts of amenities on migration vary across regions. Focusing on the migration of households displaced by violent conflicts in Colombia, Lozano-Gracia et al (2010) find that more populated regions are more attractive as they provide a sufficient level of fulfillment of basic needs.…”

Occupant Well-Being and House Values

“…Recent developments in research on spatial heterogeneity suggest that both the correlation between local amenities and desirability of the location (noted in Rijnks et al (2018)) and the correlation between property characteristics and desirability of the property (discussed in Helbich et al (2013)) might be spatially non-stationary. This spatial non-stationarity of the coefficients most likely results from an omitted spatial variable interacting with the variables of interest, as discussed in Billé et al (2017).…”

Amenities, economic opportunities and patterns of migration at the city level in China

“…Storper and Scott (2009) suggested that the compensation effect of amenities for insufficient economic opportunities was exaggerated. Some scholars consider both factors as relevant (Royuela et al., 2010; Rodriguez-Pose and Ketterer, 2012; Yang et al., 2017; Rijnks et al., 2018). In a word, the evidence on the role of economic opportunities and amenities in migration is insufficient and/or mixed.…”