Volume 6, Number 2 (Spring) 1971
Schwartz, Aba. 1971. "On Efficiency of Migration." Journal of Human Resources 6(2):193-205.
It has been suggested that the ratio of net to gross migration measures the efficiency of migration, such that a low ratio indicates a low efficiency and a high ratio indicates a high efficiency. On the basis of this efficiency criterion, it has been suggested that since the ratio of net to gross migration declines with education, doubts are cast on the hypothesis that the level of information increases with the level of education. In this article we show that the doubts are invalid-that decreasing ratios of net to gross migration, as education increases, are due to increasing efficiency of past (and present) migration which, in turn, generate higher regional earnings equality, as education increases. Higher regional equality tends to generate more movement in the "wrong" direction-against the median income gradient.
The author is associated with the Department of Economics, Tel-Aviv University, Israel. The article is based in part on my Ph.D. dissertation undertaken at the University of Chicago. I am grateful to L. A. Sjaastad, T. W. Schultz, and H. G. Lewis for valuable suggestions and comments.
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