摘要：The decisions of young adults from non-metropolitan areas to either migrate tometropolitan areas or remain in non-metropolitan areas following the completion ofschooling are studied in this paper. The migration decision is decomposed into an hourlyinitial earnings component and a cost component comprising the financial, psychic, andemployment attainment costs of migration. There are three noteworthy findings. First,while the propensity to migrate increases in educational attainment, contrary toconventional wisdom, this is entirely attributable to lower costs to migration among moreeducated individuals. Second, weak local economic conditions exert a strong influence onmigration behavior. Specifically, high local unemployment rates and low per-capita countyincome significantly increase the cost of migration. Third, expected differences in initialearnings continue to provide an important incentive for young adults to migrate from non-metropolitan to metropolitan areas.
