Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 95 No. 2 1980
The Regional Distribution of Population, Migration, and Climate
Abstract
Regional migration is analyzed utilizing a model that develops a system of urban areas. The areas differ in their endowment of a site-specific factor—climate is used as the example. The effects of differences in tax rates and technology are determined in a model where the price of housing is endogenous. Compensation for an inferior climate occurs through regional differences in income levels or the price of housing, dependent on the manner in which climate affects production or consumption. The market distribution of households is found to be suboptimal in cases where utility is derived directly from the consumption of climate. The locational choice of households is determined by a variety of factors. Recent contributions concentrating on climatic variations are Graves [1979], Graves and Linneman [1979], and Izraeli [1973]. A problem with the migration literature has been the lack of specifi-cation of a model that contains a system of urbanized areas. The model should determine the equilibrium size of urban areas. The migration flow results from the adjustment of the stock of population to changes
- DOI
- 10.2307/1885501
- Volume
- 95
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 293
- Sources
- openalex crossref