A THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL-ANALYSIS OF FAMILY MIGRATION AND HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION - UNITED-STATES 1980-1985

In this paper, research on family migration will be extended in three ways. A formal model of household production and family migration will be developed and used to generate testable hypotheses about family migration. The model will then be estimated and some policy implications will be discussed. One policy implication concerns the efficiency of the labor market. This paper is organized into five sections. First, a comparative static household production model of locational choice is developed. Next, this model of locational choice is used to develop a theoretical model of family migration. Third, the data and empirical model are discussed. Fourth, the empirical results are reported and interpreted in terms of three different types of migration. Estimates of the impact of selected variables on the distance of the move are also considered. The final section summarizes the general findings and offers some policy implications. The theoretical model of family migration which was developed in this paper stresses the microeconomics of location choice. Notions of regional amenities and psychic costs can be given concrete interpretations within the framework of a Becker-Lancaster model of household production. Empirical hypotheses are derived from the comparative static model. -from Authors