Rationality and Migration in Ghana
An attempt is made to estimate the effects of income and other variables on the pattern of interregional labor migration in Data for the study are contained in the 1960 Population Census of Ghana. The best information regarding migration is the distribution of population partitioned by age and sex by region of birth and region of residence in 1960. Ghana is divided into 7 administrative regions for which the government publishes population data. All data and analyses in this study are based on these 7 regions. The average income per African laborer was estimated for each of the regions. Measures of urbanization and education were derived from census data. Variables which are important in individual decisions were postulated but the form of individual decision functions was not specified. 2 variables are introduced which may account for systematic differences in individual responses: education as measured by the percentage of adult males in the region who have attended school; and urbanization measured by the percentage of regional population residing in towns of 5000 or more. Density of population was used in place of urbanization in 1 instance. A high proportion of the variation in interregional migration rates was explained by each of the functions. Since there were 7 regions in Ghana and 6 destinations corresponding to each origin the regressions were based on 42 observations. All of the coefficients except those for education were of the right or expected sign. Distance was a strong deterrent to migration. The highest elasticities related to income and migrants clearly tended to move to regions with high wage levels. When urbanization was included migration appeared to be more responsive to the level of home income than to income in other regions. If density was used income in other regions becomes more impoortant. Both origin and destination population were significant variables. Migration increased considerably more than in proportion to population of the home region. Migrants were attracted to regions of large population but the effect was less than proportionate. In this empirical analysis the simple dissatisfaction hypothesis concerning the effects of education was refuted. A larger percentage of educated than uneducated people do migrate especially to cities but the results were inconsistent with this observation. In sum it was demonstrated that migration in Ghana is responsive to income differentials. Distance is a strong deterrent to migration and is most likley to surrogate for differences in culture social organizations langage and transport cost. Education was negatively related to migration.
- DOI
- 10.2307/1928332
- Volume
- 49 (4)
- Pages
- 480
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