Thompson Migration, City Size and the Market Can we trust the market and self-interest to adjust the size distribution o f cities through migration? On the whole, social scientists have preferred to work with the process of migration because it is a clear act, observable and measurable in a familiar behaviorial framework, rather than with the structure of city sizes, the culmination of a long and complex chain of historical, physical, technological and institutional forces. But migration is much more complicated than it appears on first impression, for there are many less-appreciated linkages between persons to add to the more-appreciated non-market forces. Small places do not empty out as promptly or as fully as they would under a pure market model of behavior for at least two reasons. First, each wave of out-migrants draws more than pro-portionately from the more educated, talented and ambitious elements of the local population, leaving behind an ever weaker labor pool from which to draw the teachers, counsellors and leaders of all kinds that must meet the challenge of re-working a harder and harder core of unemployables and immobiles. Reinforcing this adverse sequence is the conflict of interest between parent and child. Middle-aged parents with poor schooling and few, if any, job skills that will transfer to the newer, larger place are often better off staying on the farm or in the village through the remainder of their working lives, and on into retirement. But their children have no future in agriculture or in the small place and, in fact, 27 May 1971

DOI link for Thompson Migration, City Size and the Market Can we trust the market and self-interest to adjust the size distribution o f cities through migration? On the whole, social scientists have preferred to work with the process of migration because it is a clear act, observable and measurable in a familiar behaviorial framework, rather than with the structure of city sizes, the culmination of a long and complex chain of historical, physical, technological and institutional forces. But migration is much more complicated than it appears on first impression, for there are many less-appreciated linkages between persons to add to the more-appreciated non-market forces. Small places do not empty out as promptly or as fully as they would under a pure market model of behavior for at least two reasons. First, each wave of out-migrants draws more than pro-portionately from the more educated, talented and ambitious elements of the local population, leaving behind an ever weaker labor pool from which to draw the teachers, counsellors and leaders of all kinds that must meet the challenge of re-working a harder and harder core of unemployables and immobiles. Reinforcing this adverse sequence is the conflict of interest between parent and child. Middle-aged parents with poor schooling and few, if any, job skills that will transfer to the newer, larger place are often better off staying on the farm or in the village through the remainder of their working lives, and on into retirement. But their children have no future in agriculture or in the small place and, in fact, 27 May 1971

Thompson Migration, City Size and the Market Can we trust the market and self-interest to adjust the size distribution o f cities through migration? On the whole, social scientists have preferred to work with the process of migration because it is a clear act, observable and measurable in a familiar behaviorial framework, rather than with the structure of city sizes, the culmination of a long and complex chain of historical, physical, technological and institutional forces. But migration is much more complicated than it appears on first impression, for there are many less-appreciated linkages between persons to add to the more-appreciated non-market forces. Small places do not empty out as promptly or as fully as they would under a pure market model of behavior for at least two reasons. First, each wave of out-migrants draws more than pro-portionately from the more educated, talented and ambitious elements of the local population, leaving behind an ever weaker labor pool from which to draw the teachers, counsellors and leaders of all kinds that must meet the challenge of re-working a harder and harder core of unemployables and immobiles. Reinforcing this adverse sequence is the conflict of interest between parent and child. Middle-aged parents with poor schooling and few, if any, job skills that will transfer to the newer, larger place are often better off staying on the farm or in the village through the remainder of their working lives, and on into retirement. But their children have no future in agriculture or in the small place and, in fact, 27 May 1971