A conditional logit approach to US state-to-state migration

This paper uses a conditional legit approach to study interstate migration in the United States for each of eleven years, from 1986-1987 to 1996-1997. We test substantive hypotheses regarding migration in the United States an d demonstrate the richness of the conditional la,logit approach in studies of place-to-place migration. We investigate migration responses to relative economic opportunities (unemployment rate, per capita income) and the asso ciated costs of moving (distance between origin and destination and its squ are). We also investigate how noneconomic factors, such as amenities, affec t migration between states through a state fixed effect. Finally, we study the magnitude of unmeasured costs associated with a particular migration. T he conditional legit model also allows us to compute various trade-off and other values that are of interest in migration analysis.