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Regional Patterns and Determinants of Commuting Between Rural and Urban India

Author

Listed:
  • Vasavi Bhatt

    (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research)

  • S. Chandrasekhar

    (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research)

  • Ajay Sharma

    (Indian Institute of Management)

Abstract

Despite an increase in the number of workers commuting between rural and urban areas, much of the literature on worker mobility continues to be migration centric. This paper establishes the importance of rural–urban commuting in India. As per estimates from Periodic Labour Force Survey 2018–2019, an estimated 18.8 million individuals living in rural are working in urban India and the share of earnings from urban in total non-farm rural earnings is 19.3%. Among all rural workers, 7.3% are rural–urban commuters while only 2.1% of urban workers are urban–rural commuters. We document large variations at the sub-national level. Our results from a multinomial model to understand the factors associated with commuting highlight the importance of lagged regional unemployment rate. A high rural unemployment rate acts as a push factor, and a low urban unemployment rate acts as a pull factor for rural–urban commuting. The urbanness of occupations in a region is also an important correlate of commuting. The paper concludes by highlighting the need to prioritize questions in India’s labour force survey that would help understand the nature of labour mobility and strength of rural–urban linkages.

Suggested Citation

  • Vasavi Bhatt & S. Chandrasekhar & Ajay Sharma, 2020. "Regional Patterns and Determinants of Commuting Between Rural and Urban India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(4), pages 1041-1063, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:63:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s41027-020-00276-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-020-00276-9
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    2. Priyanka Anjoy, 2023. "Hierarchical Bayes Measurement Error Small Area Model for Estimation of Disaggregated Level Workers Mobility Pattern in India," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 21(2), pages 339-361, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour mobility; Commuting; Rural–urban linkages; Classification of jobs; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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