Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name:  E. Lance Howe
Author-Name-First: Lance
Author-Name-Last: Howe
Author-Email:  elhowe@uaa.alaska.edu 
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of Alaska Anchorage 
Author-Name:  Lee Huskey
Author-Name-First: Lee
Author-Name-Last: Huskey
Author-Email:  aflh@uaa.alaska.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of Alaska Anchorage
Author-Name:  Matthew D. Berman
Author-Name-First: Matthew
Author-Name-Last: Berman
Author-Email:  auiser@uaa.alaska.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social and Economic Research and Department of Economics, University of Alaska Anchorage
Title:  Migration in Arctic Alaska: Empirical Evidence of the Stepping Stones Hypothesis  
Abstract: This paper explores hypotheses of hierarchical migration using data from the Alaskan Arctic. We focus on migration of Iñupiat people, who are indigenous to the region, and explore the role of income and subsistence harvests on migration. To test related hypotheses we use confidential micro-data from the US Census Bureau’s 2000 Decennial Census of Population and Income and generate migration probabilities using a mixed multinomial and conditional logit model. Our findings are broadly consistent with Ravenstein’s (1885) early hypothesis of step-wise migration; we find evidence of step-wise migration, both up and down an urban and rural hierarchy. We also find that where migrants choose to live is a function of place, personal, and household characteristics. 
Creation-date: 2011
File-URL: http://www.econpapers.uaa.alaska.edu/RePEC/ala/wpaper/ALA201103.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Classification-JEL: J61, O15, R23  
Keywords: Migration, Hierarchical Migration, Rural to Urban Migration, Arctic Alaska 
Number: 2011-03
Handle: RePEc:ala:wpaper:2011-03