@article{2eba7421d099402b8d0de6226e7e0f17,
title = "Migration Networks and Location Decisions: Evidence from US Mass Migration†",
abstract = "This paper studies how birth town migration networks affected long-run location decisions during historical US migration episodes. We develop a new method to estimate the strength of migration networks for each receiving and sending location. Our estimates imply that when one randomly chosen African American moved from a Southern birth town to a destination county, then 1.9 additional Black migrants made the same move on average. For White migrants from the Great Plains, the average is only 0.4. Networks were particularly important in connecting Black migrants with attractive employment opportunities and played a larger role in less costly moves.",
author = "Stuart, {Bryan A.} and Taylor, {Evan J.}",
note = "Funding Information: * Stuart: George Washington University and IZA (email: bastuart@gwu.edu); Taylor: University of Arizona (email: evantaylor@e-mail.arizona.edu). Alexandre Mas was coeditor for this article. For helpful comments and suggestions, we thank anonymous referees, Martha Bailey, Dan Black, John Bound, Leah Boustan, Charlie Brown, John DiNardo, Joseph Ferrie, Paul Rhode, Seth Richards-Shubik, Seth Sanders, Jeff Smith, Lowell Taylor, and numerous seminar and conference participants. Thanks to Seth Sanders and Jim Vaupel for facilitating access to the Duke SSA/Medicare data, and Maggie Levenstein for help accessing the 1940 census data. During work on this project, Stuart was supported in part by an NICHD training grant (T32 HD007339) and an NICHD center grant (R24 HD041028) to the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan. This paper was previously circulated under the title “Social Interactions and Location Decisions: Evidence from US Mass Migration.” †Go to https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20180294 to visit the article page for additional materials and author disclosure statement(s) or to comment in the online discussion forum. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. All Rights Reserved.",
year = "2021",
month = jul,
doi = "10.1257/app.20180294",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "13",
pages = "134--175",
journal = "American Economic Journal: Applied Economics",
issn = "1945-7782",
publisher = "American Economic Association",
number = "3",
}