Migration and Employment Change: Some New Evidence and New Considerations

As an explanation of regional economic growth, do "people follow jobs" or do "jobs follow people"? The current wisdom in the regional economics literature is that migration and employment change are jointly determined, but that the "jobs follow people" effect is the stronger of the two. Our evidence for selected counties in the Pacific Northwest from 1965 to 1970 does not support that argument. The problem may become increasingly difficult to model if the desire for non-market goods, rather than income gain, continues to evolve as a major reason for migration.