IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/jecgeo/v18y2018i4p729-759..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Internal borders and migration in India

Author

Listed:
  • Zovanga L Kone
  • Maggie Y Liu
  • Aaditya Mattoo
  • Caglar Ozden
  • Siddharth Sharma

Abstract

Internal mobility is a critical component of economic growth and development, as it enables the reallocation of labor to more productive opportunities across sectors and regions. Using detailed district-to-district migration data from the 2001 Census of India, the article highlights the role of state borders as significant impediments to internal mobility. The analysis finds that average migration between neighboring districts in the same state is at least 50% larger than neighboring districts on different sides of a state border, even after accounting for linguistic differences. Although the impact of state borders differs by education, age and reason for migration, it is always large and significant. The article suggests that inter-state mobility is inhibited by state-level entitlement schemes, ranging from access to subsidized goods through the public distribution system to the bias for states’ own residents in access to tertiary education and public sector employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Zovanga L Kone & Maggie Y Liu & Aaditya Mattoo & Caglar Ozden & Siddharth Sharma, 2018. "Internal borders and migration in India," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 729-759.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jecgeo:v:18:y:2018:i:4:p:729-759.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jeg/lbx045
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Bayer & Falko Juessen, 2012. "On the Dynamics of Interstate Migration: Migration Costs and Self-Selection," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 15(3), pages 377-401, July.
    2. Bertoli, Simone & Fernández-Huertas Moraga, Jesús, 2013. "Multilateral resistance to migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 79-100.
    3. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 691-751, September.
    4. Michèle V. K. Belot & Timothy J. Hatton, 2012. "Immigrant Selection in the OECD," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(4), pages 1105-1128, December.
    5. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    6. Michel Beine & Simone Bertoli & Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga, 2016. "A Practitioners’ Guide to Gravity Models of International Migration," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 496-512, April.
    7. Brinda Viswanathan & K.S. Kavi Kumar, "undated". "Weather Variability, Agriculture and Rural Migration: Evidence from State and District Level Migration in India," Working papers 83, The South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics.
    8. Larry L. Howard & Nishith Prakash, 2012. "Do employment quotas explain the occupational choices of disadvantaged minorities in India?," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 489-513, August.
    9. Raven Molloy & Christopher L. Smith & Abigail Wozniak, 2011. "Internal Migration in the United States," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 173-196, Summer.
    10. Alícia Adserà & Mariola Pytliková, 2015. "The Role of Language in Shaping International Migration," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(586), pages 49-81, August.
    11. Schündeln, Matthias & Playforth, John, 2014. "Private versus social returns to human capital: Education and economic growth in India," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 266-283.
    12. Martin Bell & Elin Charles-Edwards & Philipp Ueffing & John Stillwell & Marek Kupiszewski & Dorota Kupiszewska, 2015. "Internal Migration and Development: Comparing Migration Intensities Around the World," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 41(1), pages 33-58, March.
    13. Kaivan Munshi & Mark Rosenzweig, 2016. "Networks and Misallocation: Insurance, Migration, and the Rural-Urban Wage Gap," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(1), pages 46-98, January.
    14. Desmet, Klaus & Ortuño-Ortín, Ignacio & Wacziarg, Romain, 2012. "The political economy of linguistic cleavages," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 322-338.
    15. Klaus Desmet & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Shlomo Weber, 2009. "Linguistic Diversity and Redistribution," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(6), pages 1291-1318, December.
    16. Michèle Belot & Sjef Ederveen, 2012. "Cultural barriers in migration between OECD countries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(3), pages 1077-1105, July.
    17. Artuc, Erhan & Docquier, Frédéric & Özden, Çaglar & Parsons, Christopher, 2015. "A Global Assessment of Human Capital Mobility: The Role of Non-OECD Destinations," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 6-26.
    18. Anna Mayda, 2010. "International migration: a panel data analysis of the determinants of bilateral flows," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 23(4), pages 1249-1274, September.
    19. Bhattacharyya, Bharati, 1985. "The role of family decision in internal migration : The case of India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 51-66.
    20. Grogger, Jeffrey & Hanson, Gordon H., 2011. "Income maximization and the selection and sorting of international migrants," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 42-57, May.
    21. Jean Drèze & Reetika Khera, 2013. "Rural Poverty And The Public Distribution System," Working papers 235, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    22. Michel Beine & Christopher Parsons, 2015. "Climatic Factors as Determinants of International Migration," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 117(2), pages 723-767, April.
    23. Poncet, Sandra, 2006. "Provincial migration dynamics in China: Borders, costs and economic motivations," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 385-398, May.
    24. Viswanathan, Brinda & Kavi Kumar, K.S., 2015. "Weather, agriculture and rural migration: evidence from state and district level migration in India," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 469-492, August.
    25. Simone Bertoli & J. Fernandes-Huertas Moraga, 2013. "Multilateral resistance to migration," Post-Print halshs-00820169, HAL.
    26. Calogero Carletto & Jennica Larrison & Çaglar Özden, 2014. "Informing migration policies: a data primer," Chapters, in: Robert E.B. Lucas (ed.), International Handbook on Migration and Economic Development, chapter 2, pages 9-41, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    27. Ravi Srivastava & Rajib Sutradhar, 2016. "Labour Migration to the Construction Sector in India and its Impact on Rural Poverty," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 10(1), pages 27-48, April.
    28. Robert E.B. Lucas (ed.), 2014. "International Handbook on Migration and Economic Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15465.
    29. Viktoria Hnatkovska & Amartya Lahiri, 2015. "Rural and Urban Migrants in India: 1983–2008," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 29(suppl_1), pages 257-270.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fredriksson, Per G. & Gupta, Satyendra Kumar, 2020. "Irrigation and Culture: Gender Roles and Women’s Rights," GLO Discussion Paper Series 681, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Selod, Harris & Shilpi, Forhad, 2021. "Rural-urban migration in developing countries: Lessons from the literature," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    3. Augsburg, Britta & Baquero, Juan P. & Gautam, Sanghmitra & Rodriguez-Lesmes, Paul, 2023. "Sanitation and marriage markets in India: Evidence from the Total Sanitation Campaign," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    4. Franziska Braschke & Patrick A. Puhani, 2023. "Population Adjustment to Asymmetric Labour Market Shocks in India: A Comparison to Europe and the United States at Two Different Regional Levels," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 66(1), pages 7-35, March.
    5. Kumar, G. Naveen, 2023. "Improving public school productivity: Evidence from model schools in India," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    6. Albert MILLOGO & Ines TROJETTE & Nicolas PÉRIDY, 2021. "Are government policies efficient to regulate immigration? Evidence from France," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 53, pages 23-49.
    7. Chaurey, Ritam & Le, Duong Trung, 2018. "Infrastructure Grants and the Performance of Microenterprises," IZA Discussion Papers 11749, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Harshil Sahai & Michael Bailey, 2022. "Social Networks and Spatial Mobility: Evidence from Facebook in India," Papers 2203.05595, arXiv.org.
    9. Komeda, Kenji, 2021. "Environmental Factors and Internal Migration in India," Warwick-Monash Economics Student Papers 20, Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers.
    10. S. Irudaya Rajan & P. Sivakumar & Aditya Srinivasan, 2020. "The COVID-19 Pandemic and Internal Labour Migration in India: A ‘Crisis of Mobility’," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(4), pages 1021-1039, December.
    11. Brian Cevallos Fujiy & Gaurav Khanna & Hiroshi Toma, 2022. "Cultural Proximity and Production Networks," Working Papers 686, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    12. Robertson,Raymond & Kokas,Deeksha & Cardozo,Diego & Lopez-Acevedo,Gladys C., 2020. "Short and Long-Run Labor Market Effects of Developing Country Exports : Evidence from Bangladesh," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9176, The World Bank.
    13. Matthew Baird & A.V. Chari & Shanthi Nataraj & Alexander Rothenberg & Shqiponja Telhaj & L. Alan Winters, 2019. "The public sector and the misallocation of labor: evidence from a policy experiment in India," CEP Discussion Papers dp1596, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    14. Errol D’Souza, 2019. "Migrants and Informal Casual Labour Markets," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(4), pages 533-548, December.
    15. Michael Kogler, 2023. "Taxes, risk taking, and financial stability," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(5), pages 1043-1068, October.
    16. Ghose,Devaki, 2021. "Trade, Internal Migration, and Human Capital : Who Gains from India’s IT Boom?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9738, The World Bank.
    17. Gregory F Randolph & Michael Storper, 2023. "Is urbanisation in the Global South fundamentally different? Comparative global urban analysis for the 21st century," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(1), pages 3-25, January.
    18. Kumar, Himangshu, 2020. "Hearts and Minds: What explains the intensity of insurgent violence in India’s NER?," MPRA Paper 103778, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Tekin AKGEYİK, 2018. "Bölgeler Arası Göçün Yaşlanmaya Etkisi: TÜİK İBB2 Verileri Üzerine Ampirik Bir Araştırma," Journal of Social Policy Conferences, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 0(75), pages 69-91, December.
    20. Gudibande, Rohan Ravindra & Jacob, Arun, 2020. "Minimum wages for domestic workers: impact evaluation of the Indian experience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    21. Suman Chakrabarti & Samuel P. Scott & Harold Alderman & Purnima Menon & Daniel O. Gilligan, 2021. "Intergenerational nutrition benefits of India’s national school feeding program," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    22. R. Lusome & R. B. Bhagat, 2020. "Migration in Northeast India: Inflows, Outflows and Reverse Flows during Pandemic," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(4), pages 1125-1141, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simon Winter, 2020. "“It’s the Economy, Stupid!”: On the Relative Impact of Political and Economic Determinants on Migration," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 39(2), pages 207-252, April.
    2. Imran Arif, 2020. "The determinants of international migration: Unbundling the role of economic, political and social institutions," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(6), pages 1699-1729, June.
    3. Beine, Michel & Bierlaire, Michel & Docquier, Frédéric, 2021. "New York, Abu Dhabi, London or Stay at Home? Using a Cross-Nested Logit Model to Identify Complex Substitution Patterns in Migration," IZA Discussion Papers 14090, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Mathias Czaika & Christopher R. Parsons, 2017. "The Gravity of High-Skilled Migration Policies," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(2), pages 603-630, April.
    5. Hugo Rojas-Romagosa & Johannes Bollen, 2018. "Estimating migration changes from the EU’s free movement of people principle," CPB Discussion Paper 385, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    6. Bogatzki, Tamara, 2021. "Heterogeneity in migration network effects across cultures," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Migration, Integration, Transnationalization SP VI 2021-102, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    7. Mauro Lanati & Alessandra Venturini, 2017. "The Import of “cultural goods” and emigration: an unexplored relation," RSCAS Working Papers 2017/24, European University Institute.
    8. Simone Bertoli & Jesus Fernández-Huertas Moraga, 2012. "Visa Policies, Networks and the Cliff at the Border," Working Papers 2012-12, FEDEA.
    9. Vincenzo Bove & Georgios Efthyvoulou & Harry Pickard, 2023. "Government ideology and international migration," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(1), pages 107-138, January.
    10. Leefmans,Naomi & Oomes,Nienke & Rojas Romagosa,Hugo Alexander & Vervliet,Tobias & Berthiaume,Nicolas, 2021. "A Reappraisal of the Migration-Development Nexus : Testing the Robustness of the Migration Transition Hypothesis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9518, The World Bank.
    11. Basu, Arnab K. & Chau, Nancy H. & Lin, Gary C., 2022. "Migration Gravity, Networks, and Unemployment," IZA Discussion Papers 15808, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Beverelli, Cosimo & Orefice, Gianluca, 2019. "Migration deflection: The role of Preferential Trade Agreements," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    13. Nina Neubecker & Marcel Smolka & Anne Steinbacher, 2017. "Networks And Selection In International Migration To Spain," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(3), pages 1265-1286, July.
    14. Michel Beine & Simone Bertoli & Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga, 2016. "A Practitioners’ Guide to Gravity Models of International Migration," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 496-512, April.
    15. Eva Spring & Volker Grossmann, 2016. "Does bilateral trust across countries really affect international trade and factor mobility?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 103-136, February.
    16. Cosimo Beverelli, 2022. "Pull factors for migration: The impact of migrant integration policies," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 171-191, March.
    17. Lewis, John & Swannell, Matt, 2018. "The macroeconomic determinants of migration," Bank of England working papers 729, Bank of England.
    18. Ingrid Dallmann & Katrin Millock, 2013. "Climate Variability and Internal Migration: A Test on Indian Inter-State Migration," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 13045r, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, revised Mar 2016.
    19. Michel Beine & Brian B. Burgoon & Mary Crock & Justin Gest & Michael Hiscox & Patrick McGovern & Hillel Rapoport & Eiko Thielemann, 2015. "Measuring Immigration Policies: Preliminary Evidence from IMPALA," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 61(3-4), pages 527-559.
    20. Matteo Fiorini & Giorgia Giovannetti & Mauro Lanati & Filippo Santi, 2018. "Asymmetric Cultural Proximity and Greenfield FDI," Development Working Papers 434, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Internal migration; internal borders; immigration; emigration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:jecgeo:v:18:y:2018:i:4:p:729-759.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/joeg .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.