Grant-funded Project Nr. 461/2004/A-EK/CERGE
Final Report

Project title:Rural-urban migration in the Pilsen region at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century
Research leader:Ing. Alexander Klein, MA, 1999
Co-researcher: Prof.RNDr. Jan Hanousek
Period of project:2004-2004
Overall grant:65 000 CZK

Project Results

Last year I conducted a research project which goal was to analyze migration from hinterlands to the suburb village of Pilsen - Lobzy. There were three phases of the research.
In the first phase I gathered data from the manuscript returns of 1900 population census for Lobzy, Bezdekov, Strazov and Habartice. In total, I gathered data set with more than 3000 individuals. For each individual, the manuscript returns  provide detailed socio-demographic characteristics. In addition to that, information on the year of arrival to a village and family kinship is included. This information enables me to analyze the family structure of migrants and stayers and thus to decipher migration decision.
In the second phase I conducted a thorough analysis of migration decision. I have use a dynastic utility model which provided me with testable hypotheses. These hypotheses have been then analyzed deploying non-parametic tests. The analysis indicates that the household head’s expected real rural-urban wage gap was not the main factor behind migration. Instead, the observed behavior is consistent with families maximizing a dynastic utility function such that it was the future prospects of children which triggered migration. The results are not based on tracing of families in time but rely on identifying a control group of stayers. Specifically, I compare the structure of migrant families at the time of arrival to an urban area with that of families who stayed in the hinterlands and to decipher migration motifs.
In the third stage I published the results at CERGE-EI in a Discussion Paper Series. Moreover, I presented the results at three international conferences:  2004 Economic History Society Meeting, San Jose; Bertlin Coloquium in Quantitative Economic History, Humbolt University; November: International Conference on Social Science Research, New Orleans.