Life-Course Influences on Nonearnings Income Migration in the United States

Abstract

This paper contributes to the emerging body of literature examining the interregional income migration in the United States and offers explanations for why certain areas emerge as magnets for nonearnings income flows while other areas are losing this increasingly important source of personal income. By synthesizing ideas from contemporary understandings of life-course influences on migration and earlier work on income migration, the paper builds a theoretical model of factors shaping income migration across space and tests the model with evidence from Census 2000 by using both ordinary least squares and geographically weighted regression techniques. The analysis highlights the importance of life-course understandings of migration in shaping nonearnings income flows across space. Demographic factors such as concentrations of married couples with no children combine with quality-of-life and economic variables to explain nonearnings income migration. Other factors such as housing-market costs and immigration rates shape nonearnings income flows more powerfully in certain regions than in others. The results have important policy implications. With the baby boomers on the cusp of retirement, an understanding of the geographies of nonearnings income will be important for future regional economic planning and forecasting, as these income sources will become increasingly large components of total personal income.