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Commuting, Migration, and Rural‐Urban Population Dynamics
Author(s) -
Renkow Mitch,
Hoover Dale
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of regional science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1467-9787
pISSN - 0022-4146
DOI - 10.1111/0022-4146.00174
Subject(s) - restructuring , economic geography , distribution (mathematics) , population , demographic economics , rural population , economics , dynamics (music) , economic restructuring , geography , internal migration , population growth , economic growth , demography , sociology , developing country , pedagogy , mathematical analysis , mathematics , finance
Over the past 25 years social scientists attempting to explain the dramatic changes in the relative distribution of urban and rural population growth have gravitated toward two competing explanations. The regional restructuring hypothesis holds that changes in the spatial distribution of employment opportunities have been dominant whereas the deconcentration hypothesis attributes these changes to changes in residential preferences of workers and consumers. We develop an empirical test of these two explanations based on whether commuting and migration are positively or negatively related after controlling for other economic factors. Our econometric results support the deconcentration hypothesis.