Volume 8, Number 2 (Spring) 1973
Laber, Gene. 1973. "Human Capital in Southern Migration." Journal of Human Resources 8(2):223-241.
This paper assesses the effects of interregional migration on the human-capital stock of the South. Data from the 1 percent sample maintained by the Social Security Administration are used to estimate the earnings level of in- and out-migrants for the period 1960-66, during which the South lost just under 1 percent of its labor force. When earnings of migrants are converted to human-capital values, the South is estimated to have gained human capital through migration. The gain, however, depends critically on earnings levels of migrants, and the paper demonstrates that the gain turns into a loss if migrants were assumed to receive earnings prevailing for non-migrants in the region.
The author is Associate Professor of Economics, University of Vermont. The author is indebted to David Hirschberg, Office of Business Economics, for supplying data from the 1 percent sample maintained by the Social Security Administration. Richard Chase and two referees made helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper. Computer time was furnished by the University of Vermont.
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