Real Earnings and Human Migration in the United States

This study seeks to fill a void in the empirical migration literature, namely, to allow expressly for geographic living-cost differentials. The study focuses upon net migration to SMSAs over the period 1960-1970. The analysis involves two alternative treatments of living costs, one being to deflate nominal income and the other being to express those living-cost levels as a separate variable. Both approaches work. Migrants are found to be attracted to SMSAs with higher real income levels and to be attracted to SMSAs with lower living costs.