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...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	De Weerdt, Joachim, Christiaensen, Luc, Kanbur, Ravi
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:	INTERNAL MIGRATION URBANIZATION LABOR MARKET SECONDARY CITY SECONDARY TOWN
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/668891618250244449/When-Distance-Drives-Destination-Towns-Can-Stimulate-Development http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35444

id	okr-10986-35444
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-354442022-09-20T00:10:46Z When Distance Drives Destination, Towns Can Stimulate Development De Weerdt, Joachim Christiaensen, Luc Kanbur, Ravi INTERNAL MIGRATION URBANIZATION LABOR MARKET SECONDARY CITY SECONDARY TOWN 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. 2021-04-19T14:23:39Z 2021-04-19T14:23:39Z 2021-04 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/668891618250244449/When-Distance-Drives-Destination-Towns-Can-Stimulate-Development http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35444 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9622 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Tanzania
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	INTERNAL MIGRATION URBANIZATION LABOR MARKET SECONDARY CITY SECONDARY TOWN
spellingShingle	INTERNAL MIGRATION URBANIZATION LABOR MARKET SECONDARY CITY SECONDARY TOWN De Weerdt, Joachim Christiaensen, Luc Kanbur, Ravi When Distance Drives Destination, Towns Can Stimulate Development
geographic_facet	Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Tanzania
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9622
description	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.
format	Working Paper
author	De Weerdt, Joachim Christiaensen, Luc Kanbur, Ravi
author_facet	De Weerdt, Joachim Christiaensen, Luc Kanbur, Ravi
author_sort	De Weerdt, Joachim
title	When Distance Drives Destination, Towns Can Stimulate Development
title_short	When Distance Drives Destination, Towns Can Stimulate Development
title_full	When Distance Drives Destination, Towns Can Stimulate Development
title_fullStr	When Distance Drives Destination, Towns Can Stimulate Development
title_full_unstemmed	When Distance Drives Destination, Towns Can Stimulate Development
title_sort	when distance drives destination, towns can stimulate development
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2021
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/668891618250244449/When-Distance-Drives-Destination-Towns-Can-Stimulate-Development http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35444
_version_	1764483046756581376

When Distance Drives Destination, Towns Can Stimulate Development

Similar Items