Collocation or Tied Migration? Choice of Destination Location among Dual-Earner Families

Kimberlee A. Shauman, University of California, Davis

In this paper I add to the family migration literature by addressing two primary research questions. First, do dual-earner families move to labor markets that seem advantageous for the careers of both partners, i.e., do they collocate, or do they move to locations that appear to maximize career opportunity for one partner, i.e., is tied migration the norm? Second, what individual- or family-level characteristics are associated with collocation? For this analysis I use individual- and family-level data from the 1981 through 2003 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), location-specific characteristics measured with data from multiple sources, and a conditional logit model to analyze the correlates of location choice among dual-earner married couples.