Volume 6, Number 2 (Spring) 1971
Rabianski, Joseph. 1971. "Real Earnings and Human Migration." Journal of Human Resources 6(2):185-192.
The theory of human migration based on the concept of individual costs and returns from relocation has succeeded in identifying the more important factors affecting an individual's decision to move. However, while the theoretical models indicate the importance of a real earnings variable, empirical models have only considered some form of a nominal earnings variable. This article, then, outlines the analytical framework of a costs and returns approach to migration, utilizes a real earnings concept as an integral part of such a theory, subjects the resulting model to empirical test by means of regression analysis, and compares the real wage model with a nominal wage model. To accomplish this and conform as closely as possible to the theory, it was necessary to develop a method for deriving an interregional nominal earnings deflator from existing data to obtain real wages.
The author is Assistant Professor of Economics, State University of New York, Brockport. The author wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to Hugh O. Nourse for suggestions provided on an earlier draft of this article. Needless to say, errors and omissions are the responsibility of the author.
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X