Household migration and rural settlement in the United States, 1850-1860
Steckel, R.H.
Explorations in economic history 26(2): 190-218
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0014-4983 DOI: 10.1016/0014-4983(89)90010-7Document Number: 358664
This paper investigates migration patterns in a national sample of nearly 1600 families matched in the census manuscript schedules of population. Migration is observed at the county level, gross as well as net flows are measured, and the data support the estimation of regression models that explain mobility by individual characteristics. The findings suggest that education and a long-term decline in the importance of location-specific human capital promoted labor market integration, that departures from the South were small in overall migration flows, that frontier settlers differed little from persisters, that reverse migration was concentrated among the young, and that substantial differences in regional patterns of movement persisted after controlling for individual characteristics.