Out-migration, wealth constraints, and the quality of local amenities

The relation between income and migration intentions can be monotonically decreasing, increasing, or inverse U-shaped, dependent on the level of migration cost relative to wealth and if individuals are credit constrained. Using unique individual level data, covering countries in three geographic regions – sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America – we show that migration intentions respond to individual wealth, and that the pattern differs across the country groups studied in a manner compatible with the predictions of our simple model. We also show that contentment with various dimensions of local amenities, such as public services and security, are key determinants of migration intentions.