When Distance Drives Destination, Towns Can Stimulate Development
While city migrants see their welfare increase much more than those moving to towns, many more rural-urban migrants end up in towns. This phenomenon, documented in detail in Kagera, Tanzania, begs the question why migrants move to seemingly subopti...
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/668891618250244449/When-Distance-Drives-Destination-Towns-Can-Stimulate-Development http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35444 |
| Summary: | While city migrants see their welfare
increase much more than those moving to towns, many more
rural-urban migrants end up in towns. This phenomenon,
documented in detail in Kagera, Tanzania, begs the question
why migrants move to seemingly suboptimal destinations.
Using an 18-year panel of individuals from this region and
information on the possible destinations from the census,
this study documents, through dyadic regressions and
controlling for individual heterogeneity, how the deterrence
of further distance to cities (compared to towns) largely
trumps the attraction from their promise of greater wealth,
making towns more appealing destinations. Education
mitigates these effects (lesser deterrence from distance,
greater attraction from wealth), while poverty reduces the
attraction of wealth, consistent with the notion of urban
sorting. With about two-thirds of the rural population in
low-income countries living within two hours from a town,
these findings underscore the importance of vibrant towns
for inclusive development. |
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