JOHN HARRIS AND MICHAEL P. TODARO (1970) "MIGRATION, EMPLOYMENT AND DEVELOPMENT"

Migration, Employment and Development

[Institution Name]

John Harris and Michael P. Todaro (1970) "Migration, Employment and Development" American Economic Review

Analysis of the model

Lewis, in the mid-fifties, made the argument that the development of industrial sector was a means for developing countries reduce unemployment due to an excess of work in the rural sector. Based on a theoretical model, Harris and Todaro have at the beginning of the decade seventies, argued that an increase in urban employment, attracting the rural population would result in a rising unemployment. The relevance of this model was tested on a sample of seventeen countries in Latin America and Caribbean and helped find the situations envisaged by either Lewis or by Todaro. Applied to the data of the Congo, this model seems to confirm the proposal by Lewis that the creation of urban jobs, leads to a decrease in unemployment.

Parameters provided by the performance of the rural city paid the individual the consequences of money are constantly linked to rural labor intensive. Article summarizes the following concern points:

Politically determined minimum wage specified high migration from rural to urban cities to survive

That economists have made the shadow price of a typical strategy recommendations

After the estimates and the land program with a variety of welfare policy and advocated

Falls out of the wage flexibility does not exist an optimal "policy package" (Todaro, 1976, 23)

Migration explained on the basis of imbalances in the labor markets of different countries- countries or regions. Because of these imbalances, individual utility levels, normal normally operational-zed in wages, are different in one place and in the other which leads to individuals making decisions to migrate to areas with most useful. Migration is correcting imbalances notably the equilibrium wages.

Urban sector focused ...