J. Matthew Shumway

Spatial Patterns of Migration and Income Change in the Mountain West: The Dominance of Service-Based, Amenity-Rich Counties

One of the most recognizable and important changes occurring in the West is rapid population growth. This article intends to address questions associated with whether patterns of population growth and income migration are associated with “new” and “old” West economies. Rural restructuring in the U.S. has created a group of counties with service-based economies. In the Mountain West, a number of counties with service-based economies are located in areas with high levels of environmental or natural amenities, creating what has been termed the “New West.” Migration to the rural parts of the Mountain West, and the income transfers associated with migration, are increasingly concentrated within these New West counties. Rapid population growth, the changing characteristics of in-migrants, and their spatial concentration in New West counties provide a basis for conflicts over what the rural West is becoming.

Deserts and oases: the continuing concentration of population in the American Mountain West

Abstract The Mountain West is a region that seems to be simultaneously rural and urban. With its wide-open spaces, many national parks, monuments, and forests, and high degree of federal land ownership the West appears as the quintessential rural area. However, over 70 percent of the Wests population live in metropolitan areas. This simultaneous rural and urban nature of the West is important in understanding the changing population geography of the region. We examine this by focusing on changing patterns of population concentration among metro and nonmetro counties. Unlike other regions in the US, the Mountain West has never experienced a period of counterurbanization or population deconcentration. Not only is current in-migration to the region increasingly concentrated in old and new metro areas, it is also concentrated in a select number of nonmetro areas as well—particularly nonmetro counties adjacent to metro areas, in retirement destinations, and in recreation centers.

DEVELOPING THE SPATIAL MISMATCH HYPOTHESIS: PROBLEMS OF ACCESSIBILITY TO EMPLOYMENT FOR LOW-WAGE CENTRAL CITY LABOR

This research focuses on the spatial mismatch hypothesis as an explanation for the concentration of unemployment in the central cities of the industrial Midwest. It is argued that the immobility of low-wage labor relative to the mobility of employment results in either the exploitation or isolation of low-wage labor. In the contemporary period, the suburbanization of low-wage employment economically isolates the immobile low-wage population of the central cities. This alternative view of the spatial mismatch de-emphasizes race and emphasizes the segmentation of women and minorities into low-wage occupations. To test the spatial mismatch hypothesis, a model of the probability distribution of travel times to work is estimated for three cities in the industrial Midwest: Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. The results support the hypothesis that the decentralization of employment reduces access to employment for central city residents as evidenced by the lower frequency of short trips to work for low-wage centra...

Interdependencies in the timing of migration and mobility events

Methods for examining interdependencies between the timing of migration events and other major events in the life histories of individuals are presented. Individual locational histories are treated as realizations of discrete-state, continuous-time random variables, with migration or mobility events corresponding to transitions between states. The timing of migration is compared to the timing of other transitions in individual life histories, including changes in household organization and labor force status, by investigating the durations of time separating the two kinds of transitions. Empirical investigations are carried out using longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation.

Self-selection, earnings and Chicano migration: differences between return and onward migrants.

The purpose of this article is to extend the empirical literature on Chicano return migration by examining earnings differentials between return and onward Chicano migrants. Our approach reflects the complexity of estimating such effects in terms of selectivity biases and the interaction between individual and locational attributes. We use data derived from the public use microdata sample (PUMS) of the 1990 U.S. census. After controlling for migration and labor force self-selection, results indicate that Chicano return migrants are not negatively self-selected. Chicano return migrants have smaller earnings profiles largely due to the negative effects of living in areas with higher concentrations of co-ethnics. Apparently, return migrants, at least in the short run, are willing to accept lower earnings for the nonpecuniary benefits of living in the Southwest.

Environmental Hazards as Disamenities: Selective Migration and Income Change in the United States from 2000–2010

An emerging area of migration research is the complex relationship between migration and environmental hazards, broadly defined. Environmental hazards are best viewed through a vulnerability lens, which has two components. The first is exposure—the frequency and duration of the hazardous events—and the second is adaptive capacity—the ability of communities to mitigate, deflect, or absorb the effects of exposure. Because migration is selective of individuals and places, it changes both the populations size and composition, thus affecting its exposure and adaptive capacity. In this article we examine how migration varies among sets of counties that experience significantly different exposures to all environmental hazards in the United States. We create an environmental hazards impact index in an attempt to measure the impacts of environmental hazards at the county level over a period of years. We found that counties that experience the greatest impacts from environmental hazards are losing income as a result of the migration. In counties with the highest impacts, income is lost through both net outmigration as well as income loss through out-migrants having higher incomes than in-migrants.

Gender and Ethnic Concentration and Employment Prospects for Mexican-American Migrants

Mexican-Americans comprise the USs second largest minority group and one of its fastest growing minorities. Between 1980 and 1990, there was a 54% increase in the number of Mexican-Americans in the US, with half of the increase due to births and the remainder from immigration. The authors analyzed the effects of migration upon the employment of Mexican-Americans using US Census Bureau 1990 Public Use Microsample (PUMS) data. The effects were then differentiated by gender and studied with regard to how localized concentrations of coethnics affect the returns to migration, after controlling for migration self-selection bias. Results from the analysis of the data suggest that migration decreases the employment probabilities for married women with no significant effect for single men or women. A greater percentage of coethnics increases employment for all groups except single women.

Intraurban Population Estimation Using Remotely Sensed Imagery

Of the Earth’s 6.5 billion human inhabitants, nearly three billion live in urban settlements (UNCHS, 2001). Natural increase, land tenure practices, political policy, environmental degradation, and the dynamics of regional / global economics are largely responsible for the ongoing population shift from rural agrarian regions to cities. This increased urbanization is not just a developing country phenomenon. Urban areas of North America in 1900 were home to only 50% of the continent’s population. In 2000, the percentage of North American urban inhabitants rose to 75%.

Economic Freedom, Migration, and Income Change in the United States: 1995 to 2010

Migration is primarily motivated by economic reasons, but people also move for a variety of other purposes, including a desire for political and economic freedom. Although freedoms are often thought of as dominant reasons for international migration in political states with federal systems of governments, migration across internal political borders also takes place to take advantage of local differences in political and economic regulations, taxes, and public goods. Using the combined Internal Revenue Service/Census Bureau state-to-state migration data for 1995 to 2010, we examine the relationship between economic freedom and migration and its impact on state-level income change. We find that economic freedom is positively associated with income change due to net migration but not associated with gains or losses from income differences between in- and outmigrants. In general, states with higher or lower levels of economic freedom gained or lost income due to migration.

Tithes, Offerings and Sugar Beets: The Economic Logistics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

The recent emergence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the media stems from its growth outside traditional Utah and increasing status of members in politics, business, entertainment, and sports. While the increasing prominence of individual members attracts media attention, it is the underlying growth of the Church that is significant. I present information on the geographic representation of its underlying organizational structure that facilitates its growth and mission and also discuss its temporal affairs including financing of their operations through voluntary donations, investments, and directly owned businesses. The Church is the physical and temporal manifestation of a spiritually conceived and based set of religious doctrines, values, beliefs, and practices that it uses to sustain, maintain, share, and perpetuate its religious/spiritual beliefs. Without organization the ability to fulfill its divinely inspired message is difficult to achieve. For organized religion to be successful, it must have both a compelling message and an organizational structure to sustain and perpetuate its message. While the good news is free to all who wish to hear it, the capabilities associated with delivering the message, along with charitable and humanitarian acts that the Church engages are not free. All organized religions/churches require some form of financial support to carry out their mission. To have resonance it must be a dynamic and ongoing concern, add adherents, create an organization outside of state control, and be well financed. The Church addresses its financial needs in three ways: use of tithing funds for Church buildings and maintenance; fast-offering funds, Church welfare farms, and donations; and profits from Church-owned businesses to supply funds for humanitarian efforts, disaster relief, and stipends for general authorities. The Church is growing because of its spiritual message and because its organization facilitates continued expansion.