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ABSTRACT This paper examines the concept of place utility in an operational context. Its major objective is to construct and evaluate place utility functions which are based upon socioeconomic and migration characteristics of areal units within a city. A secondary objective is to identify major factors related to intraurban migration flows in an aggregate framework. The empirical basis for the study is a sample of actual migration flows for Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for a single year commencing in 1966 and terminating in 1967. Regression methods are used for estimating parameters of the place utility functions. One conclusion of the analysis is that migration friction between neighborhood types is considerably less than expected. Factors identified as most important in guiding intraurban migration streams are the aspirations of the household with respect to housing and the spatial characteristics of the vacancy market, the latter of which has been neglected in geographic research. With respect to the method of calibrating place utility functions, we were not satisfied with the regression approach. Although the implications of those functions in terms of migration processes are in concordance with existing theory and knowledge, it was felt that the amount of explained variation should be higher if such functions are to serve as input components for other analyses.
Brown et al. (Mon,) studied this question.