Multinomial Logistic Models Explaining Income Changes Of Migrants To High-Amenity Counties

A survey of residents of and migrants to 15 fast-growing wilderness counties showed that only 25 percent of the migrants increased their income, while almost 50 percent accepted income losses upon their moves to high-amenity counties. Concomitantly, amenities and quality of life were more important factors in the migration decision than was employment, for instance. We focused on migrants in the labor force and employed multinomial logistic regression to identify the impact of migrants' characteristics, their satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the previous location (push), and the importance of destination features (pull) on income change. We found that migrants in higher age brackets were more inclined to accept lower incomes than younger migrants, while few migrants in high income groups had experienced income cuts. Migrants who moved for employment reasons typically realized income gains, while quality of life oriented moves tended to be associated with income losses.