A Note on Migration, Economic Opportunity, and the Quality of Life

This study empirically investigates the impact of not only economic opportunity but also the quality of life, including environmental dimensions, on net in-migration over the 1960-1968 period. Investment is treated as an investment decision. Using available data for the largest SMSAs in the U.S. provided an opportunity to investigate migration to 39 of those SMSAs. The OLS results indicate that economic opportunity, as measured by the unemployment rate and the change in per capita income, exercised a negative impact and positive impact, respectively, on net in-migration to large SMSAs. Furthermore, it is found that quality-of-life/environmental factors such as warm weather, lower crime rates, and greater availability of medical care services attracted migrants. The presence of higher levels of air pollution were found to exercise only a very modest negative impact on ne in-migration.