Internal Migration, Education, and Intergenerational Mobility: Evidence from American History

Abstract

To what extent does internal migration lead to upward mobility? Using within-brother variation and a new linked dataset from the early 20^th century, I show that internal migration led to significant gains in economic status. On average, the effect of migration was three-to-four times the effect of one year of education; for those raised in poorer households, the effect was up to ten times that of education. The evidence suggests that internal migration was a key strategy for intergenerational progress in a context of rapid industrialization, large rural-to-urban flows and wide interregional income gaps.