You are here:

The relationship between schooling and migration: Evidence from compulsory schooling laws
ARTICLE

Economics of Education Review Volume 35, Number 1, ISSN 0272-7757 Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

Abstract

I estimate the effect of schooling on the propensity to migrate by exploiting variation in schooling due to compulsory schooling laws (CSLs) in the United States. I obtain negative estimates of this effect among those with relatively little schooling. In contrast, previous research estimates positive schooling effects on migration at higher levels of schooling. I speculate that additional schooling at low levels enhances local labor market contacts and thereby increases the opportunity cost of migration (leaving those contacts behind).

Citation

McHenry, P. (2013). The relationship between schooling and migration: Evidence from compulsory schooling laws. Economics of Education Review, 35(1), 24-40. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved September 21, 2023 from .

This record was imported from Economics of Education Review on March 1, 2019. Economics of Education Review is a publication of Elsevier.

Full text is availabe on Science Direct: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2013.03.003

Keywords

References

View References & Citations Map
  1. Acemoglu, D., & Angrist, J. (2000). How large are the social returns to education? Evidence from compulsory schooling laws. NBER Macroannual, pp. 9-59.
  2. Bertrand, M., Duflo, E., & Mullainathan, S. (2004). How much should we trust differences-in-differences estimates?. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 119(1), pp. 249-275.
  3. Börsch-Supan, A. (1990). Education and its double-edged impact on mobility?. Economics of Education Review, 9(1), pp. 39-53.
  4. Bound, J., & Holzer, H.J. (2000). Demand shifts, population adjustments, and labor market outcomes during the 1980?. Journal of Labor Economics, 18(1), pp. 20-54.
  5. Buonannoa, P., & Leonida, L. (2009). Non-market effects of education on crime: Evidence from Italian regions. Economics of Education Review, 28, pp. 11-17.
  6. Cameron, A.C., Gelbach, J.B., & Miller, D.L. (2011). Robust inference with multi-way clustering. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 29(2), pp. 238-249.
  7. Cameron, A.C., & Trivedi, P.K. (2005). Microeconometrics: Methods and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  8. Card, D. (1999). The causal effect of education on earnings. Handbook of labor economics Amsterdam: Elsevier North Holland.
  9. Collins, W.J. (1997). When the tide turned: Immigration and the delay of the Great Black Migration?. The Journal of Economic History, 57(3), pp. 607-632.
  10. Dickson, M., & Harmon, C. (2011). Economic returns to education: What we know, what we don’t know, and where we are going – Some brief pointers. Economics of Education Review, 30, pp. 1118-1122.
  11. Edwards, L.N. (1978). An empirical analysis of compulsory schooling legislation, 1940–1960?. Journal of Law and Economics, 21(1), pp. 203-222.
  12. Eide, E.R., & Showalter, M.H. (2011). Estimating the relation between health and education: What do we know and what do we need to know?. Economics of Education Review, 30, pp. 778-791.
  13. Gill, F. (1979). Economics and the black exodus. New York: Garland Publishing.
  14. Gradstein, M., & Justman, M. (2009). Understanding compulsory schooling legislation: A formal model and implications for empirical analysis. IZA Discussion Paper No. 4420 (September).
  15. Greenwood, M.J. (1997). Internal migration in developed countries. Handbook of population and family economics, pp. 648-720. Amsterdam: Elsevier North Holland.
  16. Ham, J.C., Li, X., & Reagan, P.B. (2006). Propensity score matching, a distance-based measure of migration, and the wages of young men. mimeo.
  17. Imbens, G.W., & Angrist, J.D. (1994). Identification and estimation of local average treatment effects?. Econometrica, 62(2), pp. 467-475.
  18. Lall, S.V., Timmins, C., & Yu, S. (2009). Connecting lagging and leading regions: The role of labor mobility. Brookings-Wharton papers on urban affairs, pp. 151-174. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
  19. Lleras-Muney, A. (2002). Where compulsory attendance and child labor laws effective? An analysis from 1915 to 1939. Journal of Law and Economics, 45, pp. 401-435.
  20. Machin, S., Salvanes, K.G., & Pelkonen, P. (2012). Education and mobility. Journal of the European Economic Association, 10(2).
  21. Malamud, O., & Wozniak, A. (2012). The impact of college on migration: Evidence from the Vietnam generation?. Journal of Human Resources, 47(4), pp. 913-950.
  22. Margo, R.A. (1990). Race and schooling in the south, 1880–1950. Chicago: U of Chicago P.
  23. McHenry, P. (2012). Does low wealth constrain long-distance migration? Evidence from the NLSY79 cohort. College of William and Mary Department of Economics Working Paper #119.
  24. Milligan, K., Moretti, E., & Oreopoulos, P. (2004). Does education improve citizenship? Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom?. Journal of Public Economics, 88(9), pp. 1667-1695.
  25. Molloy, R., Smith, C., & Wozniak, A.K. (2011). Internal migration in the United States?. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 25(3), pp. 173-196.
  26. Park, J. H. (1994). Estimation of sheepskin effects and returns to schooling: Using the old and the new CPS measures of educational attainment. Princeton University Industrial Relations Section Working Paper #338.
  27. Rosenbloom, J.L., & Sundstrom, W.A. (2004). The decline and rise of interstate migration in the United States: Evidence from the IPUMS, 1850–1990. Research in economic history, Vol. 22, pp. 289-325. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  28. Ruggles, S., Alexander, J. T., Genadek, K., Goeken, R., Schroeder, M. B., & Sobek, M. (2010) Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 5.0 [Machine-readable database]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.
  29. Schultz, T.P. (1971). Rural–urban migration in Colombia?. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 53(2), pp. 157-163.
  30. Schultz, T.W. (1975). The value of the ability to deal with disequilibria?. Journal of Economic Literature, 13(3), pp. 827-846.
  31. Sjaastad, L.A. (1962). The costs and returns of human migration?. Journal of Political Economy, 70(5), pp. 80-93.
  32. Staiger, D., & Stock, J.H. (1997). Instrumental variables regression with weak instruments?. Econometrica, 65(3), pp. 557-586.
  33. Stephens, M., Jr., & Yang, D. (2012) Schooling laws, school quality, and the returns to schooling. Working paper.
  34. Tolbert, C. M., & Sizer, M. (1996). U.S. commuting zones and labor market areas. A 1990 update. Economic Research Service Staff Paper No. 9614.
  35. Topel, R.H. (1986). Local labor markets. Journal of Political Economy, 94(3), pp. S111-S143.
  36. Wozniak, A. (2010). Are college graduates more responsive to distant labor market opportunities?. Journal of Human Resources, 45(4), pp. 944-970.

These references have been extracted automatically and may have some errors. Signed in users can suggest corrections to these mistakes.

Suggest Corrections to References