Housing costs and the geography of family migration outcomes

Abstract

This paper takes a geographic approach towards assessing the 'returns' to family migration by addressing explicitly the impacts of differences in the cost of housing between the place of origin and place of destination for family migrants. While numerous studies have examined differences in labor-force participation and wages subsequent to migration, particularly on the part of wives, few studies have considered the local geographic context of these events. This study examines the "adjusted" outcomes from migration for husbands, wives, and families in the United States in the context of local housing costs. Our findings challenge the assumption of simple economic gains and instead indicate that who gains and who loses from family migration is quite complex.The geography of family migration is critical in determining gains and losses and is interrelated with moves in and out of the labor market on the part of wives. Our research indicates that wives who leave the labor market after a move are very likely to have moved to a more affordable housing market. Conversely, wives enter the labor market when the move is to a more expensive housing market. For this group, wives earnings go a long way towards minimizing the impact on overall family earnings. This paper provides an important contribution to understanding family migration by positioning the analysis of migration outcomes within the context of labor markets and local housing market costs.

Long-Distance Moves and Labour Market Outcomes of Dual-Earner Couples in the UK and Germany

“…Second, this indicates that moves of dual-earner couples do not have positive earning returns for partners on average -at least in the short run (cf. also Davies Withers & Clark 2006). This is in contrast to findings on positive returns for other types of movers, e.g.…”

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

“…Nevertheless, there is a threshold at which amenities become less influential in terms of residential preferences. As high-amenity areas attract more people, supply-side costs (housing, congestion, growth limits) start to capture the values of the amenities such that households must be willing to trade off lower real incomes to access a location's specific environmental amenities (Rappaport 2005;Withers and Clark 2006).…”

Housing context and childbearing in Sweden: a cohort study

“…Residential moves are tightly bound with the first birth, suggesting that couples move in anticipation of having a child (Clark & Withers, 2006 in the United States; Kulu & Vikat, 2008 in Finland). Kulu & Steele (2013) model the likelihood of three parity transitions following the move to different types of housing, and find that the likelihood of childbearing is positively related to moving at every parity, though the magnitude of the effect decreases with the birth order.…”