Template-Type:ReDIF-Paper 1.0  
Title: Interregional Migration and Polarisation: 
     A Theoretical Analysis
Author-Name: Biswas, Debashis 
Author-Name: Margit, Sugata  
Classification-JEL:  R0, J6, H4
Keywords:  Migration, Polarisation
Abstract: We suggest that people higher up in the income ladder 
     care more for the 'quality of life' rather than for 
     the level of income per se. We introduce such a 
     behaviourial assumption in a model of 'rural-urban'and 
     'urban-urban' migration. 'Quality of life' depends 
     crucially on the 'social infrastructure' which is 
     provided by the regional governments. We show, how 
     starting from a given distribution of skilled labour 
     across two regions and given state of social infrastructure, 
     one of the region loses all the skilled people and the 
     regions are polarised as 'skilled' and 'unskilled' segments 
     of an economy. The results derived in the model continue 
     to hold in more robust specifications of the framework. 
     They also continue to hold when regions are allowed 
     to choose tax rates to finance 'quality of life'.
Length: pages
Creation-Date: 1998-09
Revision-Date: 
Handle: RePEc:bon:bonsfa:582