Equalizing Regional Differences in Wages : A Study of Wages and Migration in the South and Other Regions

Economic theory predicts that real wage differentials across geographical areas will not persist so long as there is free trade or free factor mobility among the areas. Persistent real wage differentials among regions of a country such as the United States would therefore be puzzling because, in addition to free trade, there is free movement of capital and labor. It is, however, part of the nation's folklore that real wages are persistently lower in the South despite a rather substantial migration into the Southern region