Role of economic reforms on dismantling barriers to inter-state migration in India

Abstract

Traditionally inter-state migration in India was limited compared to within state migration. Economic reforms in the early 1990s have boosted inter-state migration in the country. Hence, it is important to understand the impact of economic reforms on the determinants of inter-state migration. Recent studies have identified that state border; linguistic divide and per capita income play an important role in determining the location of inter-state migration in India. In this paper, we tried to understand the impact of economic reforms on the choice of the location of inter-state migration in the country by using a gravity model framework. We found that while the impact of per capita income difference has increased in the post-reform period, the impact of the common-border has declined. Moreover, the impact of the linguistic divide has initially increased after reforms.