The Impact of Unemployment Insurance Benefits on the Probability of Migration of the Unemployed

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-1-1990

Department

Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs

Abstract

By ignoring individual unemployment compensation benefits and conditions of job termination, past migration research has concluded that personal unemployment doubles the likelihood of interstate labor-force migration. Findings from the present study indicate that aggregating the unemployed, without adjusting for these two factors, overstates the probability of migration for the involuntarily unemployed benefit recipient and understates the likelihood of migration for the voluntarily unemployed benefit recipient. The results suggest that federal discretionary unemployment-compensation programs, which are implemented during recessionary periods, likely serve to retard out-migration of those who are involuntarily unemployed.

Publication Title

Journal of Regional Science

Volume

30

Issue

3

First Page

349

Last Page

358

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