Does Economic Freedom Lead to Selective Migration by Sex and Race?

Although states with more economic freedom witness net in-migration, the composition of this migratory response may vary by sex, race, or ethnic background (Ashby, 2007). Bowles (1970) nds that African Americans are considerably less responsive than whites to the expected income gain from moving. Lee and Roseman (1999) argue that \expected economic benets were more significantcant in their impact upon the destination choice of Black families than for white families." Using the 2000 Census PUMS data, we nd that non-Hispanic whites and Hispanic men migrate to U.S. states with more economic freedom. Asian men and women and white, non-Hispanic women migrate to states with less economic freedom. We then investigate how components of the Economic Freedom index are associated with these migratory patterns. Our findings suggest that if the variation in economic freedom continues to widen and selective migration continues, the polarization of the U.S. states may increase as well.