TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Weerdt, Joachim De
AU  - Christiaensen, Luc
AU  - Kanbur, Ravi
        TI  - When Distance Drives Destination, Towns Can Stimulate Development
        PY  - 2021/Mar/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 14157
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp14157
        AB  - While city migrants see their welfare increase much more than those moving to towns, many more rural-urban migrants end up in towns. This phenomenon, documented in detail in Kagera, Tanzania, begs the question why migrants move to seemingly suboptimal destinations. Using an 18-year panel of individuals from this region and information on the possible destinations from the census, this study documents, through dyadic regressions and controlling for individual heterogeneity, how the deterrence of further distance to cities (compared to towns) largely trumps the attraction from their promise of greater wealth, making towns more appealing destinations. Education mitigates these effects (lesser deterrence from distance; greater attraction from wealth), while poverty reduces the attraction of wealth, consistent with the notion of urban sorting. With about two thirds of the rural population in low-income countries living within two hours from a town, these findings underscore the importance of vibrant towns for inclusive development.
        KW  - Africa
KW  - internal migration
KW  - urbanization
KW  - secondary towns
        ER  -