All tied up: Tied staying and tied migration within the United States, 1997 to 2007

This research develops a unique methodology to directly identify both tied migrants and tied stayers in order to investigate their frequency and determinants. Using data from the 1997 through 2009 US Panel Study of Income Dynamics, propensity score matching is used to match married individuals with comparable single individuals to create counterfactual migration behaviors: who moved but would not have moved had they been single (tied migrants) and who did not move but would have moved had they been single (tied stayers). Tied migration is relatively rare and not limited just to women: rates of tied migration are similar for men and women. However, tied staying is both more common than tied migration and equally experienced by men and women. Additional research is warranted to validate the unique methodology developed in this paper and to confirm its results.