IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ese/iserwp/2006-24.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The impact of internal migration on married couples’ earnings in Britain, with a comparison to the United States

Author

Listed:
  • L. Blackburn, McKinley

Abstract

Previous studies have often suggested that wives experience a decline in labor-market fortunes after an internal migration of a married couple. This evidence is consistent with wives being 'tied movers' on average. I use the British Household Panel Survey to consider the extent to which wive earnings change systematically following a change in economic location for married couples within Britain. The results provide little evidence that a migration event is associated with increased earnings for husbands. On the other hand, there is some suggestion that wive earnings fall after a change in location, with most of this fall due to a decline in weeks of work for wives. This evidence is sensitive to the definition of a change in location, with the largest evidence of a negative effect on earnings arising when long-distance moves of more than 50 kilometers are examined. A comparison to evidence from the United States suggests the effects may be similar in the two countries, and do not provide statistical support for the notion that the lower migration rates in Britain are associated with greater benefits to migration than in the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • L. Blackburn, McKinley, 2006. "The impact of internal migration on married couples’ earnings in Britain, with a comparison to the United States," ISER Working Paper Series 2006-24, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2006-24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/working-papers/iser/2006-24.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Larry Long, 1991. "Residential Mobility Differences among Developed Countries," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 14(2), pages 133-147, August.
    2. Larry Long & C. Tucker & William Urton, 1988. "Migration distances: An international comparison," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 25(4), pages 633-640, November.
    3. Heckman, James J & Honore, Bo E, 1990. "The Empirical Content of the Roy Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(5), pages 1121-1149, September.
    4. Mincer, Jacob, 1978. "Family Migration Decisions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 749-773, October.
    5. Sandell, Steven H, 1977. "Women and the Economics of Family Migration," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 59(4), pages 406-414, November.
    6. John C. Ham & Xianghong Li & Patricia B. Reagan, 2004. "Propensity Score Matching, a Distance-Based Measure of Migration, and the Wage Growth of Young Men," Working Papers 2004_3, York University, Department of Economics.
    7. Rabe, Birgitta, 2006. "Dual-earner migration in Britain: earnings gains, employment, and self-selection," ISER Working Paper Series 2006-01, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    8. Boheim, Rene & Taylor, Mark P., 2007. "From the dark end of the street to the bright side of the road? The wage returns to migration in Britain," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 99-117, January.
    9. CHIURI Maria Concetta & JAPPELLI Tullio, 2000. "Financial Markets, Judicial Costs and Housing Tenure: An International Comparison," IRISS Working Paper Series 2000-04, IRISS at CEPS/INSTEAD.
    10. H. Makower & J. Marschak & H. W. Robinson, 1939. "Studies In Mobility Of Labour: Analysis For Great Britain, Part I," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 0(1), pages 70-97.
    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. Birgitta Rabe, 2011. "Dual-earner migration. Earnings gains, employment and self-selection," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 477-497, April.
    2. Philipp M. Lersch, 2012. "Long-Distance Moves and Labour Market Outcomes of Dual-Earner Couples in the UK and Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 469, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Philip S Morrison & William A V Clark, 2011. "Internal Migration and Employment: Macro Flows and Micro Motives," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(8), pages 1948-1964, August.
    4. Korpi, Martin & Clark, William, 2013. "Human Capital Theory And Internal Migration: Do Average Outcomes Distort Our View Of Migrant Motives?," Ratio Working Papers 213, The Ratio Institute.

    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. M. L. Blackburn, 2010. "The Impact of Internal Migration on Married Couples' Earnings in Britain," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(307), pages 584-603, July.
    2. Zaiceva, Anzelika, 2010. "East-West migration and gender: Is there a differential effect for migrant women?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 443-454, April.
    3. Birgitta Rabe & Mark P. Taylor, 2012. "Differences in Opportunities? Wage, Employment and House-Price Effects on Migration," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 74(6), pages 831-855, December.
    4. Mark P. Taylor, 2007. "Tied Migration and Subsequent Employment: Evidence from Couples in Britain," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(6), pages 795-818, December.
    5. Rabe, Birgitta, 2006. "Dual-earner migration in Britain: earnings gains, employment, and self-selection," ISER Working Paper Series 2006-01, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    6. Felix Büchel & Harminder Battu, 2003. "The Theory of Differential Overqualification: Does it Work?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 50(1), pages 1-16, February.
    7. Jacobsen, Joyce P. & Levin, Laurence M., 2000. "The effects of internal migration on the relative economic status of women and men," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 291-304, May.
    8. Cahit Guven & Lan Anh Tong & Mutlu Yuksel, 2020. "Australia's Immigration Selection System and Labour Market Outcomes in a Family Context: Evidence from Administrative Data," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 96(S1), pages 50-77, June.
    9. Murray-Close, Marta, 2019. "Commuter Couples and Careers: Moving Together for Him and Apart for Her," SocArXiv s5nvp, Center for Open Science.
    10. Martin A. Carree & Kristin Kronenberg, 2014. "Locational Choices and the Costs of Distance: Empirical Evidence for Dutch Graduates," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(4), pages 420-435, October.
    11. John Odland & Mark Ellis, 1988. "Household organization and the interregional variation of out-migration rates," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 25(4), pages 567-579, November.
    12. Hendrik Jürges, 2006. "Gender ideology, division of housework, and the geographic mobility of families," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 299-323, December.
    13. Birgitta Rabe, 2011. "Dual-earner migration. Earnings gains, employment and self-selection," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 477-497, April.
    14. Borjas, George J & Bronars, Stephen G, 1991. "Immigration and the Family," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(2), pages 123-148, April.
    15. Sigaud, Thomas, 2014. "Mobilités résidentielles et professionnelles des salariés en France : entreprises, marchés et territoires, une articulation en tension," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/14064 edited by Kirat, Thierry & Cusin, François.
    16. Ning Jia & Raven Molloy & Christopher Smith & Abigail Wozniak, 2023. "The Economics of Internal Migration: Advances and Policy Questions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 144-180, March.
    17. 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.
    18. Kalashnikov, Vyacheslav & Kalashnykova, Nataliya & Rojas, Ramón Luévanos & Muí±os, Mario Méndez & Uranga, César & Rojas, Arnulfo Luévanos, 2008. "Numerical experimentation with a human migration model," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 208-229, August.
    19. Murata, Yasusada, 2003. "Product diversity, taste heterogeneity, and geographic distribution of economic activities:: market vs. non-market interactions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 126-144, January.
    20. Randall Akee, 2010. "Who Leaves? Deciphering Immigrant Self-Selection from a Developing Country," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(2), pages 323-344, January.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ese:iserwp:2006-24. 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: Jonathan Nears (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rcessuk.html .

    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.