Economic freedom and migration: A metro area-level analysis |
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| Authors: | Imran Arif Adam Hoffer Dean Stansel Donald Lacombe |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Economics, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA;2. Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA;3. Cox School of Business, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA;4. Department of Personal Financial Planning, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA |
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| Abstract: | We examine the determinants of intra-U.S. population migration at the metropolitan area level (MSA), with an emphasis on the presence of policies that are consistent with economic freedom. We are the first to produce a multivariate regression analysis of migration and economic freedom at the local level. Combining a 1993–2014 unbalanced panel of MSA-to-MSA migration data from the Internal Revenue Service with a new economic freedom index for U.S. metropolitan areas, we find that a 10% increase in economic freedom of a destination MSA, relative to the economic freedom of an origin MSA, was associated with a 27.4% increase in net migration from the origin MSA to the destination MSA. If we use mean net migration flows as a benchmark, we would expect a 10% increase in relative economic freedom to increase net migration to the destination MSA by 22 workers per year from each other MSA. |
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| Keywords: | economic freedom local government migration metropolitan areas |
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