Author

Abigail Lang

Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Yu, Sherry

Area of Concentration

Economics

Abstract

This thesis examines two prominent trends recently developed in the US labor market: declining internal migration and increasing inefficiency of matching. To explore the underlying causes of these trends, we adopt an empirical approach to evaluate how education, social factors, economic conditions and other demographic variables affect internal migration. We use a cross-section logit model to examine the marginal effects of independent variables on the probability of moving out-of-state. Data from the Current Population Survey years 2000 to 2018 is used to conduct this study. Our findings suggest that college degrees and graduate degrees are becoming less attractive to firms and may contribute to declining mobility in the labor market. The effect of each variable is also found to be moving closer to zero as geographic mobility declines.

Share

COinS