ABSTRACT
With few exceptions, economic studies of labor migration in developing countries (LDCs) focus on the potential contributions that migration may make to the absolute income of the relevant migration unit (i.e., the individual, the family or the household). By contrast, Stark hypothesizes that rural-to-urban migration might be undertaken primarily to improve an individual's or a household's comparative income position with respect to that of other individuals or households in the relevant reference group (for example, the village). 1
