Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-fsdjw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-26T10:00:33.963Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From L.A. to Boise: How Migration Has Changed During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2023

Peter Haslag Open the ORCID record for Peter Haslag [Opens in a new window]  and
Daniel Weagley
Peter Haslag*
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management
Daniel Weagley
Affiliation:
Georgia Institute of Technology Scheller College of Business daniel.weagley@scheller.gatech.edu
*
peter.haslag@vanderbilt.edu (corresponding author)
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We examine how broad changes in work arrangements and lifestyles brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected households’ location decisions. Using data on over 360,000 residential, interstate moves over the last 5 years, we find that more than 12% of moves were directly influenced by the pandemic. Among pandemic-influenced movers, over 15% of households cite that remote work influenced their move. Lifestyle-related (job-related) migration increased (decreased) significantly, particularly for the set of households who are likely to have access to remote work. We further find that these changes in migration patterns are positively related to post-pandemic economic growth.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis , Volume 59 , Issue 5 , August 2024 , pp. 2068 - 2098
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington

Footnotes

We are grateful to UniGroup and, especially, Eily Cummings for providing us the data. We thank an anonymous referee and Jarrad Harford (the editor) for constructive comments in the review process. We also thank Jan Brueckner, Jonathan Dingel, Andra Ghent, Andrii Parkhomenko, and Christopher Smith for their helpful comments. Any remaining errors are our own.

References

Barber, B. M.; Jiang, W.; Morse, A.; Puri, M.; Tookes, H.; and Werner, I. M.. “What Explains Differences in Finance Research Productivity During the Pandemic?” Journal of Finance, 76 (2021), 1655–1697.10.1111/jofi.13028CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Rephael, A.; Carlin, B.; Da, Z.; and Israelsen, R. D.. “All in a Day’s Work: What Do We Learn from Analysts’ Bloomberg Usage?” Available at SSRN (2022).Google Scholar
Bick, A.; Blandin, A.; and Mertens, K.. “Work from Home Before and After the COVID-19 Outbreak.” Available at SSRN (2021).10.2139/ssrn.3786142CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, N.; Liang, J.; Roberts, J.; and Ying, Z. J.. “Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130 (2015), 165–218.10.1093/qje/qju032CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brueckner, J.; Kahn, M. E.; and Lin, G. C.. “A New Spatial Hedonic Equilibrium in the Emerging Work-from-Home Economy?” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 15 (2023), 285–319.Google Scholar
Chetty, R.; Friedman, J.; Hendren, N.; and Stepner, M.. “The Economic Impacts of COVID-19: Evidence from a New Public Database Built from Private Sector Data.” NBER Working Paper No. 27431, Opportunity Insights (2020).10.3386/w27431CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohn, J.; Liu, Z.; and Wardlaw, M.. “Count (and Count-Like) Data in Finance.” Journal of Financial Economics, 146 (2022), 529–551.10.1016/j.jfineco.2022.08.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Correia, S.; Guimarães, P.; and Zylkin, T.. “Fast Poisson Estimation with High-Dimensional Fixed Effects.” Stata Journal, 20 (2020), 95–115.10.1177/1536867X20909691CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, M.; Dey, M.; and Loewenstein, M.. “The Impact of Remote Work on Local Employment, Business, Relocation, and Local Home Costs.” Bureau of Labor Statistics Working Paper No. 553 (2022).Google Scholar
Davis, D. R., and Dingel, J. I.. “A Spatial Knowledge Economy.” American Economic Review, 109 (2019), 153–170.10.1257/aer.20130249CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M. A.; Ghent, A. C.; and Gregory, J.. “The Work-at-Home Technology Boon and Its Consequences.” NBER Working Paper No. 28461 (2023).Google Scholar
De Fraja, G.; Matheson, J.; Mizen, P.; Rockey, J.; and Taneja, S.. “Remote Working and the New Geography of Local Service Spending.” CEPR Discussion Paper No. 17431 (2022).Google Scholar
Delventhal, M., and Parkhomenko, A.. “Spatial Implications of Telecommuting.” Available at SSRN 3746555 (2022).Google Scholar
Delventhal, M. J.; Kwon, E.; and Parkhomenko, A.. “JUE Insight: How Do Cities Change When We Work from Home?” Journal of Urban Economics, 127 (2022), 103331.10.1016/j.jue.2021.103331CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dingel, J. I., and Neiman, B.. “How Many Jobs Can Be Done at Home?” Journal of Public Economics, 189 (2020), 104235.10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104235CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duchin, R., and Sosyura, D.. “Remotely Productive: The Efficacy of Remote Work for Executives.” Available at SSRN 3761972 (2021).Google Scholar
Gaubert, C.; Kline, P.; Vergara, D.; and Yagan, D.. “Trends in U.S. Spatial Inequality: Concentrating Affluence and a Democratization of Poverty.” AEA Papers and Proceedings, 111 (2021), 520–525.10.1257/pandp.20211075CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guglielminetti, E.; Loberto, M.; Zevi, G.; and Zizza, R.. “Living on My Own: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Housing Preferences.” Occasional Paper No. 627, Bank of Italy (2021).10.2139/ssrn.3891671CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gupta, A.; Mittal, V.; Peeters, J.; and Van Nieuwerburgh, S.. “Flattening the Curve: Pandemic-Induced Revaluation of Urban Real Estate.” Journal of Financial Economics, 146 (2022a), 594–636.10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.10.008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gupta, A.; Mittal, V.; and Van Nieuwerburgh, S.. “Work From Home and the Office Real Estate Apocalypse.” Available at SSRN (2022b).10.3386/w30526CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gustafson, M.; Haslag, P. H.; Weagley, D.; and Ye, Z.. “A Flash in the Pan(demic)? Migration Risks and Municipal Bonds.” Available at SSRN 4029984 (2022).10.2139/ssrn.4029984CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, T.; Webster, S.; Petherick, A.; Phillips, T.; and Kira, B.. “Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker.” Blavatnik School of Government (2020).Google Scholar
Ling, D. C.; Wang, C.; and Zhou, T.. “A First Look at the Impact of COVID-19 on Commercial Real Estate Prices: Asset-Level Evidence.” Review of Asset Pricing Studies, 10 (2020), 669–704.10.1093/rapstu/raaa014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, S., and Su, Y.. “The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Demand for Density: Evidence from the U.S. Housing Market.” Economics letters, 207 (2021), 110010.10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110010CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Manson, S.; Schroeder, J.; Van Riper, D.; Kugler, T.; and Ruggles, S.. IPUMS National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 15.0. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS (2020). http://doi.org/10.18128/D050.V15.0.Google Scholar
Molloy, R.; Smith, C. L.; and Wozniak, A.. “Internal Migration in the United States.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 25 (2011), 173–196.10.1257/jep.25.3.173CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mondragon, J. A., and Wieland, J.. “Housing Demand and Remote Work.” NBER Working Paper No. 30041 (2023).10.3386/w30041CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moretti, E. “Local Multipliers.” American Economic Review, 100 (2010), 373–377.10.1257/aer.100.2.373CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moretti, E. The New Geography of Jobs. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2012).Google Scholar
Ozimek, A. “Remote Workers on the Move.” Working Paper, Upwork, available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3790004) (2020).10.2139/ssrn.3790004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramani, A., and Bloom, N.. “The Donut Effect of COVID-19 on Cities.” NBER Working Paper No. 28876 (2023).Google Scholar
Rosenthal, S. S.; Strange, W. C.; and Urrego, J. A.. “JUE Insight: Are City Centers Losing Their Appeal? Commercial Real Estate, Urban Spatial Structure, and COVID-19.” Journal of Urban Economics, 127 (2022), 103381.10.1016/j.jue.2021.103381CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Su, Y. “Working from Home During a Pandemic: It’s Not for Everyone.” Economic Analysis and Insights from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (2020).Google Scholar
Thompson, S. B. “Simple Formulas for Standard Errors That Cluster by Both Firm and Time.” Journal of Financial Economics, 99 (2011), 1–10.10.1016/j.jfineco.2010.08.016CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiebout, C. M. “A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures.” Journal of Political Economy, 64 (1956), 416–424.10.1086/257839CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Haslag and Weagley supplementary material

Internet Appendix

Download Haslag and Weagley supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 4.5 MB