Researchers have consistently shown that the stock of human capital in an area, measured as the share of the adult population with a college degree, is a strong predictor of future population growth. This article examines this relationship for U.S. nonmetropolitan counties and posits that student migration for higher education may play an important role. Students often move to an area for college and then stay in the area after their education is complete, causing the area’s educated population to grow. Empirical evidence suggests that student migration explains nearly all the greater in-migration to highly educated nonmetropolitan counties. Implications for nonmetropolitan brain drain are discussed.
ArtzG. (2003, December). Rural brain drain: Is it a reality?Choices, 4th Quarter, 11-15.
5.
AudretschD. B.FeldmanM. P. (1996). R&D spillovers and the geography of innovation and production. American Economic Review, 86, 630-640.
6.
BerryC. R.GlaeserE. L. (2005). The divergence of human capital levels across cities. Papers in Regional Science, 84, 407-444.
7.
BlackwellM.CobbS.WeinbergD. (2002). The economic impact of educational institutions: Issues and methodology. Economic Development Quarterly, 16, 88-95.
8.
CarlinoG. A.MillsE. S. (1987). The determinants of county growth. Journal of Regional Science, 27, 39-54.
9.
CarrP. J.KefalasM. J. (2009). Hollowing out the middle: The rural brain drain and what it means for America. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
10.
ChenY.RosenthalS. S. (2008). Local amenities and life-cycle migration: Do people move for jobs or fun?Journal of Urban Economics, 64, 519-537.
11.
ClarkD. E.HunterW. J. (1992). The impact of economic opportunity, amenities, and fiscal factors on age-specific migration. Journal of Regional Science, 32, 349-365.
12.
ClarkD. E.MurphyC. A. (1996). Countywide employment and population growth: An analysis of the 1980s. Journal of Regional Science, 36, 235-256.
13.
ConwayK. S.RorkJ. C. (2006). State death taxes and elderly migration: The chicken or the egg?National Tax Journal, 59, 97-128.
14.
CorcoranJ.FaggianA.MccannP. (2010). Human capital in remote and rural Australia: The role of graduate migration. Growth and Change, 41, 192-220.
15.
DaVanzoJ. (1983). Repeat migration in the United States: Who moves back and who moves on?Review of Economics and Statistics, 65, 552-559.
16.
DruckerJ.GoldsteinH. (2007). Assessing the regional impacts of universities: A review of current approaches. International Regional Science Review, 30, 20-46.
17.
ElveryJ. A. (2010). City size and skill intensity. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 40, 367-379. doi:10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2010.05.00610.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2010.05.006
18.
FaggianA.McCannP. (2009). Human capital, graduate migration and innovation in British regions. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 33, 317-333.
19.
FaggianA.McCannP.SheppardS. (2007a). Human capital, higher education and graduate migration: An analysis of Scottish and Welsh students. Urban Studies, 44, 2511-2528.
20.
FaggianA.McCannP.SheppardS. (2007b). Some evidence that women are more mobile than men: Gender differences in UK graduate migration behavior. Journal of Regional Science, 47, 517-539.
21.
FloridaR. (2002). Bohemia and economic geography. Journal of Economic Geography, 2, 55-71.
22.
FloridaR.MellanderC.StolarickK. (2008). Inside the black box of regional development: Human capital, the creative class, and tolerance. Journal of Economic Geography, 8, 615-649.
23.
FranklinR. S. (2003). Migration of the young, single and college educated: 1995 to 2000 (Census 2000 Special Reports, CENSR-12). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
24.
GibbsR. M. (1995). Going away to college and wider urban job opportunities take highly educated youth away from rural areas. Rural Development Perspectives, 10, 35-44.
25.
GibbsR. M. (2000). College graduates in the nonmetropolitan South: Origins and prospects. Southern Rural Sociology, 16, 36-59.
26.
GlaeserE. L.SaizA. (2004). The rise of the skilled city. Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, 47-94.
27.
GlaeserE. L.ScheinkmanJ. A.ShleiferA. (1995). Economic growth in a cross-section of cities. Journal of Monetary Economics, 36, 117-143.
28.
GlaeserE. L.ShapiroJ. M. (2003). Urban growth in the 1990s: Is city living back?Journal of Regional Science, 43, 139-165.
29.
GoldsteinH.DruckerJ. (2006). The economic development impacts of universities on regions: Do size and distance matter?Economic Development Quarterly, 20, 22-43.
30.
GottliebP. D.FogartyM. (2003). Educational attainment and metropolitan growth. Economic Development Quarterly, 17, 325-336.
31.
GottliebP. D.JosephG. (2006). College-to-work migration of technology graduates and holders of doctorates within the United States. Journal of Regional Science, 46, 627-659.
32.
GroenJ. A. (2004). The effect of college location on migration of college-educated labor. Journal of Econometrics, 121, 125-142.
33.
GroenJ. A.WhiteM. J. (2004). In-state versus out-of-state students: The divergence of interest between public universities and state governments. Journal of Public Economics, 88, 1793-1814.
34.
HendersonJ. V. (2007). Understanding knowledge spillovers. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 37, 497-508.
35.
HickmanD. C. (2009). The effects of higher education policy on the location decision of individuals: Evidence from Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarship program. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 39, 553-562.
36.
HuffmanD.QuigleyJ. M. (2002). The role of the university in attracting high tech entrepreneurship: A Silicon Valley tale. Annals of Regional Science, 36, 403-419.
37.
IranzoS.PeriG. (2009). Schooling externalities, technology, and productivity: Theory and evidence from U.S. states. Review of Economics and Statistics, 91, 420-431.
38.
JaffeA. B. (1989). Real effects of academic research. American Economic Review, 79, 957-970.
39.
JaffeA. B.TrajtenbergM.HendersonR. (1993). Geographic localization of knowledge spillovers as evidenced by patent citations. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 108, 577-598.
40.
KrupkaD. J. (2009). Location-specific human capital, location choice and amenity demand. Journal of Regional Science, 49, 833-854.
41.
LangeF.TopelR. (2006). The social value of education and human capital. In HanushekE.WelchF. (Eds.), Handbook of the economics of education (pp. 459-509). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.
42.
LendelI. (2010). The impact of research universities on regional economies: The concept of university products. Economic Development Quarterly, 24, 210-230.
43.
McGranahanD. A. (1999). Natural amenities drive rural population change (Agricultural Economic Report No. AER781). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
44.
McGranahanD. A.WojanT. R.LambertD. M. (2010). The rural growth trifecta: Outdoor amenities, creative class and entrepreneurial context. Journal of Economic Geography. Advance online publication. doi:10.1093/jeg/lbq00710.1093/jeg/lbq007
45.
MorettiE. (2004a). Estimating the social return to higher education: Evidence from longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional data. Journal of Econometrics, 121, 175-212.
46.
MorettiE. (2004b). Human capital externalities in cities. In HendersonJ. V.ThisseJ. (Eds.), Handbook of regional and urban economics (pp. 2243-2291). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.
47.
PartridgeM. D.AliK.OlfertM. R. (2010). Rural-to-urban commuting: Three degrees of integration. Growth and Change, 41, 303-335.
48.
PartridgeM. D.RickmanD. S.AliK.OlfertM. R. (2008a). Employment growth in the American urban hierarchy: Long live distance. B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics(Contributions), 8, 1-36.
49.
PartridgeM. D.RickmanD. S.AliK.OlfertM. R. (2008b). The geographic diversity of U.S. nonmetropolitan growth dynamics: A geographically weighted regression approach. Land Economics, 84, 241-266.
50.
PartridgeM. D.RickmanD. S.AliK.OlfertM. R. (2008c). Lost in space: Population growth in the American hinterlands and small cities. Journal of Economic Geography, 8, 727-757.
51.
PlaneD. A.HeinsF. (2003). Age articulation of U.S. inter-metropolitan migration flows. Annals of Regional Science, 37, 107-130.
52.
PlaneD. A.JurjevichJ. R. (2009). Ties that no longer bind? The patterns and repercussions of age-articulated migration. Professional Geographer, 61, 4-20.
53.
RappaportJ. (2007). Moving to nice weather. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 37, 375-398.
54.
RauchJ. E. (1993). Productivity gains from geographic concentration of human capital: Evidence from the cities. Journal of Urban Economics, 34, 380-400.
55.
ShapiroJ. M. (2006). Smart cities: Quality of life, productivity, and the growth effects of human capital. Review of Economics and Statistics, 88, 324-335.
56.
SimonC. J. (1998). Human capital and metropolitan employment growth. Journal of Urban Economics, 43, 223-243.
57.
SimonC. J.NardinelliC. (2002). Human capital and the rise of American cities, 1900-1990. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 32, 59-96.
58.
SjaastadL. A. (1962). The costs and returns of human migration. Journal of Political Economy, 70, 80-93.
59.
WaldorfB. S. (2009). Is human capital accumulation a self-propelling process? Comparing educational attainment levels of movers and stayers. Annals of Regional Science, 43, 323-344.
60.
WhislerR. L.WaldorfB. S.MulliganG. F.PlaneD. A. (2008). Quality of life and the migration of the college-educated: A life-course approach. Growth and Change, 39, 58-94.
61.
WintersJ. V. (2011). Why are smart cities growing? Who moves and who stays. Journal of Regional Science, 51, 253-270.
