An Analysis of the Determinants of Geographic Labor Mobility in the United States

HE objective of this study is to estimate T the magnitudes in which each of several factors influenced interstate migration over the period 1955-1960. Several variables were chosen which might reasonably be expected to explain the movements which occurred, and multiple regression analysis was used on the data. The most unique explanatory variable employed is the stock, i.e., the number of persons born in state i (the origin state) and living in state j (the destination state).' It is shown that the failure to include the migrant stock variable in the estimated relationship causes the true direct effect of most other variables to be obscured.