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Internal Migration in the United States: Rates, Selection, and Destination Choice, 1850–1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2024

Ariell Zimran*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Economics, Vanderbilt University, PMB 351819, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, TN 37235-1819 and Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

I study native-born white men’s internal migration in the United States over all possible 10- and 20-year periods between 1850 and 1940. Inter-county migration rates—after implementing a new method to correct for errors in linkage—were stable over time. Migrant selection on the basis of occupational status was neutral or slightly negative and also largely stable. But the orientation of internal migration changed over time, declining in distance and increasingly driving urbanization. In the 1930s, migration became less common and less urban oriented. These results provide a clearer understanding of historic U.S. internal migration than previously possible.

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Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Economic History Association

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Footnotes

For helpful comments, I thank Eric Hilt (the editor), three anonymous referees, Jeremy Atack, Brian Beach, William Collins, James Feigenbaum, and Sarah Quincy; participants in the Junior Economic History Workshop; and seminar participants at Vanderbilt University. Work on this paper was completed while I was a W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow and the William C. Bark National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and while I was a Visiting Scholar at the Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; funding from both institutions is gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis or the Federal Reserve System.

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