Thomas A. Knapp

A Nested Logit Approach to Household Mobility

This study analyzes personal and site characteristics in a model of intraMSA and interMSA mobility. Households are assumed to choose a single type of move, intraMSA or interMSA, while simultaneously choosing a central city or suburban destination. We demonstrate that a nested logit model is appropriate on both theoretical and empirical grounds. The sample consists of intrametropolitan and intermetropolitan movers drawn from the 1990 U.S. Census PUMS. Personal characteristics drawn from the PUMS are matched to numerous site characteristics (climatic measures, other amenities, state and local fiscal characteristics, and other urban quality measures) drawn from a variety of sources. Nested logit direct and cross elasticities are presented for a number of site attributes. Copyright 2001 BlackwellPublishers

Mobility behavior of the elderly

Mobility patterns of the elderly provide a particularly interesting theoretical subcase of a more general migration model which interacts individual-specific traits (e.g., health and retirement status) and location-specific traits (e.g., amenities, rents, and wages). The spatially invariant incomes (pensions, dividends, etc.) of the retired are shown to lead to migration toward areas where the wage and rent compensation for amenities (necessary for spatial equilibrium) occurs primarily in the labor market, rather than in the land market. Empirical evidence appears to be consistent with theoretical expectations; more investigation, however, is clearly desirable.

The Effect of Youth Poverty Rates and Migration on Adult Wages

We created a migration and earnings history from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to analyze the effects of youth county poverty rates on the adult earnings of white male migrants. We estimate a log wage equation that includes human capital measures, migration types, county poverty rates, and a rural–poverty rate interaction variable. Growing up in a rural county has a negative impact on adult wages independent of youth county poverty rates, but the rural effect is significantly greater for those who grew up in high poverty counties. Youth county poverty rates indirectly affect wages through the returns to migration.

A multi-disciplinary interpretation of migration: amenity capitalization in both land and labor markets

Various disciplines have produced models to explain and predict human migration. A model is presented providing a taxonomy through which interdisciplinary insights can be synthesized. The imperfect information view emphasizes the role of wage differentials as representing arbitragible real utility differentials. The perfect information approach holds that wage and rent differentials are compensating differentials, eliminating real utility variation over space. Moreover, markets compress diverse aspects of spatial variation in welfare, otherwise difficult to quantify, into compensating wage and rent differentials. Rents tend to capitalize the variation in a host of amenities, thereby substantially reducing the need for a potential migrant to discover and weight the importance of various amenities. Empirical results are presented which support the latter equilibrium view. Amenities, as proxied by rents, are superior goods, as indicated by net movements toward high rent locations. This suggests the increasing relative importance of amenities as a determinant of migration.