Life-cycle position and migration to urban and rural areas: estimations of a mixed logit model on French data

Migration flows between urban and rural areas in developed countries show a strong difference in migration destinations with regard to age. Our paper analyses, in the French case, who rural areas attract or repel and what their so-called “pull-factors” are. Our goal is to explain the propensity to migrate and the destination choice among four categories of area (urban centres, suburbs, rural areas under urban influence, rural LMAs), for three age groups. Mixed logit models, that do not rely on the IIA assumption and allow for heterogeneity in individual behaviours are estimated on a large French sample. The results show that the educational level of young people and the labour market characteristics of their initial residential area particularly influence their destination choices. The labour market variables have little influence on the migration decisions of the middle-aged, for whom residential motivations appear to be predominant. The migration decisions of 45-64 years old are clearly residentially motivated changes.