On the impact of household asset level and inequality on inter-governorate migration : evidence from Egypt

Abstract EN

We investigate whether the level and the inequality of household assets impact inter-governorate migration in Egypt using gravity models and data from the 1996 and 2006 Population and Housing Censuses of Egypt.

We find that people tend to move to the governorates with higher asset level and higher asset inequality.

This suggests that there is a positive association between inequality and economic growth.

Areas with high economic level and inequality attract more migrants than areas with low economic level and inequality.

Moreover, our findings suggest that unlike non-work migration, the low level of assets in original governorate is a push factor of work migration.