Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1983

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Economics

Major Professor

Henry W. Herzog

Committee Members

Chang, Goolsby, Murphy

Abstract

This study examines the labor force hierarchy and investigates how this structure affects geographic mobility. In particular, this research incorporates a version of the segmented labor market model into the migration decision making model of the worker.

A systematic method of categorizing workers into meaningful segments is provided, and contrary to all previous methods, this proposed technique does not rely upon the judgment of the researcher. By categorizing workers into segments or tiers according to the earnings improvement and to the degree of job autonomy experienced by the worker, it is demonstrated that one is able to group workers into meaningful tiers that exhibit characteristics that are consistent with the postulates of the segmented labor market model.

And with the use of discriminant and univariant analysis, this study is. able to compare this proposed classification scheme with alternative methods suggested in the literature. This analysis demonstrates that the classification scheme proposed by this study generates segments that are more consistent with the hypotheses of the dual labor market theorists.

Additionally as hypothesized, empirical results show that those workers who are classified as primary workers (those who work within an internal labor market) exhibit geographic mobility patterns significantly different from secondary workers (those who do not work within an internal labor market).

Specifically it is demonstrated that ceteris paribus, those workers who are employed in an internal labor market are more reluctant to undertake a geographic move. Additionally as hypothesized, it is established that primary workers are less responsive to labor market tightness in the local labor market and are more inhibited by length of job tenure when considering a geographic move.

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