ABSTRACT
The destination choice component of migration behavior has generally been analyzed by means of aggregate models, most often gravity models in which the volumes of place-to-place migration flows depend on the population sizes of origins and destinations and on the distances separating them. The human capital perspective on migration (Sjaastad 1962; Molho 1986) indicates, however, that heterogeneity in the migrant population may be associated with heterogeneity in destination choices. Human capital models treat migration behavior as a form of investment undertaken by individuals in order to improve their long-term returns to participation in localized labor markets, or their returns from accessibility to other localized opportunities. Conditions for this kind of investment behavior are likely to vary across members of a heterogeneous population, because of differences in liquidity, because place-to-place variations in returns to labor market participation may differ across individuals with different qualifications, and because interregional differences in returns are calculated over different time horizons for persons of different ages.
