The determinants of interstate student migration: a place-to-place analysis

In this paper an empirical test of the factors underlying the student migration decision is made using place-to-place data. The school selection decision is modeled as one involving the choice of particular institutions and its characteristics, as well as those economic and other factors which influence non-student migrants. The results indicate first, that non-resident students may not be as sensitive to tuition levels as may have been believed; second, that the economic climate in the destination state is an important factor in the migration decision; and third, that there are many asymmetries in factors determining migration which cannot be captured without the origin and destination state data. The data allow us to make separate tests for subsamples of male and female student migrants. The results show little difference between these two groups.