Do the Poor Move to Receive Higher Welfare Benefits

Abstract

This paper examines the extent of welfare induced migration using 1980 and 1990 Census data. I discuss a number of methodological issues that studies of welfare migration must confront and which have biased past studies. I then examine the evidence for welfare induced migration using multiple techniques. I begin with several types of comparison group based methods, some of which are new. I then combine the ideas of these methods with that of a structural conditional logit model that relies on comparisons of the attributes of possible locations. The different methods all point toward the same result: there is welfare induced migration, but it is modest in magnitude.