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Scale-free human migration and the geography of social networks

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  • Levy, Moshe

Abstract

The “gravitational law of social interaction”, by which the probability of a social link decreases inversely with the square of the geographic distance, has been recently documented. The source of this spatial property of social networks, however, is yet unknown. The formation of social links is related to human dynamics both on the day-to-day, typically small scale, level of mobility, and on larger scale migration (or reallocation) movements. In this study we analyze human migration patterns by investigating the migration of 46.8 million individuals across the US during 1995–2000. We find that the probability of migration decreases as a power law of the distance, with exponent −1. We show that this finding offers an explanation for the gravitational law of social interaction. Possible explanations and implications of the scale-free migration pattern are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Levy, Moshe, 2010. "Scale-free human migration and the geography of social networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(21), pages 4913-4917.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:389:y:2010:i:21:p:4913-4917
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2010.07.008
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    Cited by:

    1. Ionel MUNTELE & Raluca-Ioana HOREA-ȘERBAN, 2021. "From Internal to International Migration in Romania – Continuity and Spatial Differentiation," Eastern European Journal for Regional Studies (EEJRS), Center for Studies in European Integration (CSEI), Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova (ASEM), vol. 7(2), pages 5-26, December.
    2. Benoît Schmutz & Modibo Sidibé, 2019. "Frictional Labour Mobility," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(4), pages 1779-1826.
    3. Jincheng Jiang & Jinsong Chen & Wei Tu & Chisheng Wang, 2019. "A Novel Effective Indicator of Weighted Inter-City Human Mobility Networks to Estimate Economic Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-18, November.
    4. Laszlo Gadar & Zsolt T. Kosztyan & Janos Abonyi, 2018. "The Settlement Structure Is Reflected in Personal Investments: Distance-Dependent Network Modularity-Based Measurement of Regional Attractiveness," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2018, pages 1-16, December.
    5. Lin, Jingyi, 2012. "Network analysis of China’s aviation system, statistical and spatial structure," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 109-117.
    6. Xavier Gabaix, 2016. "Power Laws in Economics: An Introduction," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 185-206, Winter.
    7. Csáji, Balázs Cs. & Browet, Arnaud & Traag, V.A. & Delvenne, Jean-Charles & Huens, Etienne & Van Dooren, Paul & Smoreda, Zbigniew & Blondel, Vincent D., 2013. "Exploring the mobility of mobile phone users," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(6), pages 1459-1473.
    8. Aksoy, Ozan & Yıldırım, Sinan, 2020. "A model of dynamic migration networks: Explaining Turkey's inter-provincial migration flows," SocArXiv rf724, Center for Open Science.

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