Open AccessPost-Great-Recession Human Migration Patterns in the U.S.: The Overlooked Impacts of Entrepreneurial Activity and Personal Freedom
Author(s) -
Richard J. Cebula
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
american business review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2689-8810
pISSN - 0743-2348
DOI - 10.37625/abr.24.2.133-146
Subject(s) - economic freedom , entrepreneurship , recession , human migration , demographic economics , great recession , economic geography , panel data , economics , political science , sociology , labour economics , demography , macroeconomics , econometrics , law , market economy , population
Effectively no scholarly research has been published in peer-reviewed journals on the potential migration impacts of environments that are more conducive to entrepreneurship. Similarly, the potential migration impact of personal freedom also is essentially ignored in the literature. This study seeks to add to the literature by investigating the impacts of both entrepreneurial activity and personal freedom on state in-migration patterns. Using a panel dataset for the post-Great Recession period 2010-2017, the empirical analysis reveals that all three of the Kauffman indices of entrepreneurial activity are found to exercise a positive and statistically significant impact on both net in-migration and gross in-migration. In addition, the index of overall personal freedom is found to exercise a positive and statistically significant impact on both of these in-migration measures. Thus, it appears that there may be good reason for future migration studies to take such variables into account when seeking to explain, understand, and predict migration patterns in the U.S..