Ross D. MacKinnon

Vacancy Chains, Information Filters, and Interregional Migration

An interregional migration model based on vacancy chains, on an intervening-opportunities interaction hypothesis, and incorporating endogenously generated imperfect information flows is developed. Analytical results are determined for the case of perfect information. Numerical experiments are undertaken for the case of imperfect information. Cyclical behavior in the state variables occurs around the perfect-information equilibrium. Suggestions for extending the modeling framework are identified.

Interregional Migration Models with Source and Interaction Information

The importance of information flows in models of migration are emphasized. In particular, migrants are, assumed to react to two types of information about job vacancies. ‘Interaction information’ may be defined as interpersonal communication between recent migrants and their former neighbors or friends, and ‘source information’ represents a direct flow of information from employers or agencies to individuals. Models are developed that investigate the effects of various communication rates and information retention levels on vacancy and labor-force population trajectories. It is found that attempts by planners to reduce regional inequities in vacancy rates through controlled advertising may be successful, but at the possible cost of increasing temporal fluctuations of regional vacancy rates.

An elementary simulation model of the job matching process within an interregional setting

Using a dynamic multiregional model, this paper discusses the job search and migration process and how they are affected by welfare levels, regional wage scales, and stress. This model relaxes the homogeneity assumptions; therefore, different skills and skill requirements exist. Despite the obvious importance of wages to both the worker and employer, the model assigns workers to jobs without regard to the wage paid; the objective function maximizes societys benefits rather than that of either the worker or the employer in isolation. 2 extreme salary distributions are used: 1) salaries are depressed to the point where the marginal worker receives a salary approaching zero; and 2) the employees control the gaming process and thus accept only high salaries. The interregional model assumes 2 types of people exist--movers and stayers. Migration occurs in response to a difference between a persons current level of utility and that level thought to be obtainable in another region. Proximal regions with lower stress values will reduce flows to more attractive, distant regions. An optimal interregional matching requires workers to engage in an interregional search for better opportunities; welfare levels and regional wage scales are determined. Welfare differentials perceived by the workers give rise to stress, and migration occurs if the experienced level of stress is greater than the perceived risk. Despite some limitations, the basic model formulated here produces reasonable results and further study is warranted. The introduction of the game theoretic formulation of the labor market into the geography literature provides a new and potentially important way to study labor migration.

Towards a Behavioral Model of a Spatial Labor Market

Migration is increasingly recognized as one of the fundamental processes in geographical analysis—a process that both shapes and reflects the areal differentiation of social systems. Of particular importance is the migration that occurs in response to changes in employment (i. e., labor migration). A variety of models have attempted to describe both the general migration process (see Clark, 1982, for a complete review), as well as the more specialized labor migration process (see Rogerson, 1982). All of these models, however, are deficient in at least two areas. The first arises from the manner in which they conceptualize space; the second is their failure to recognize the importance of person-specific characteristics such as age and job tenure. The model developed in this paper will attempt to address these two shortcomings. First a formulation of space that recognizes its continuous nature will be incorporated into a general model of labor migration. Second, a disaggregate behavioral model of the migrant that recognizes the role of individual characteristics in the decision process will be developed.