An analysis of the determinants of internal labor mobility in India

Summary

Several variables have been chosen which might reasonably be expected to explain the interstate migration which has occurred in India. The independent variables used in the study explain a fairly high percentage of the variance in migration between states, and all variables except U_j are significant at the 5 percent level or better. The distance variable consistently has in absolute value the highest elasticity in the various estimated relationships, and it is the variable which contributes most in terms of addition to R². This result is similar to those of other studies dealing with both advanced and less-developed countries, but it appears that the deterring effects of distance may be greater in India than in other countries studied. Migration in India tends to be away from low-income states and toward high-income states, a finding which is similar to those for Ghana, Egypt, and Brazil. Migration also tends to be away from and to populous states, and while migration is away from highly urbanized states, it does not seem to be toward highly urbanized places in India,ceteris paribus. However, migration does tend to be in the direction of places which are urbanizing rapidly and away from places which are urbanizing slowly. There is evidence that in India mobility tends to increase with increased education; this finding is contrary to what was found for Ghana, Egypt, and Brazil. Migration in India also tends to be toward places which display relatively high levels of educational achievement.