The Well-Being of Cities: Estimating Migration Attractiveness From Internal Migration Across Korean Cities

Abstract

We adopt the methodology proposed by Lee, Lee and Lin [2021. “The Well-Being of Nations: Estimating Welfare from International Migration.” International Economic Review 62:1111-1130] to estimate the migration attractiveness of Korean cities using internal migration data. Our approach has two advantages over traditional methods. First, it is cost-effective as it uses pre-existing administrative data, unlike surveys. Second, It also gives a more comprehensive view of city's viability by accounting for migration costs and patterns. Our findings confirm the ongoing regional imbalance and indicate that some rural areas' migration attractiveness are lower than what their population growth suggests.