Migration: unemployment and population growth in developing countries
Sen, S.
Scandinavian Journal of Development Alternatives 2(3): 76-83
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0280-2791 Document Number: 348001
Starting from Todaro's findings that urban job creation schemes may increase urban unemployment by accelerating rural urban migration, the paper develops a model which attempts to distinguish the urban-pull effect of job creation schemes from the effects of differential population growth rates in rural and urban areas on the volume of migration. It finds that, although there are circumstances in which the scheme's objective will be frustrated, there are critical levels of growth rate of additional employment which will leave the level of unemployment unchanged, and hence there are rates, in excess of this critical rate, at which unemployment will be reduced. Rural development is therefore not the only option.