As the western society experienced in the 1970s, the phenomenon of Ichon-hyangdo, which refers to the movement of leaving the countryside for the city, occurred in Korean when the population moved from rural to urban and non-metropolitan to metropolit...
As the western society experienced in the 1970s, the phenomenon of Ichon-hyangdo, which refers to the movement of leaving the countryside for the city, occurred in Korean when the population moved from rural to urban and non-metropolitan to metropolitan areas searching for jobs and high incomes. However, as the government's balanced national development policy was fully implemented, the economic and social disparity between the metropolitan area and the non-metropolitan area gradually narrowed. As a result, the population moved from the metropolitan area to the non-metropolitan area and from large cities to small and medium cities near large cities. In the early 2010s, the reversal phenomenon of the number of people moving out from the metropolitan area to the non-metropolitan area was greater than the number of people moving in. However, the population began to concentrate again in the metropolitan area, especially the trend was strongly shown at the age of 20s and 30s. This study examines the research question on what causes the recent centralization of the metropolitan area and whether the causes of migration have changed compared to the past.
The representative hypothesis related to population movement are Todaro's expected income hypothesis and Tiebout's theory of consumption of local amenities. The former illustrates that high income is the purpose of the movement, and the latter indicates that people choose the move between regions to maximize one's utility by local public goods. However, the existing theory has limitations in explaining the recent phenomenon of population movement in Korea. For example, if the population move to the regions where the utility of regional amenity factors is superior due to economic effect, it doesn't explain the phenomenon that the scale of movement to the metropolitan area decreased and then increased in the 2000s. Therefore, this study investigates the causes of population migration among regions as “self-determination rights for life” focusing on the millennial youth and explains the phenomenon of population migration according to changes in social conditions and generation characteristics. To this end, this study analyzed the characteristics of the millennials in their 20s and 30s and social conditions were divided into three categories: the economic downturn in the region, the GNI per capita of $30,000, and the advent of the 4th industrial revolution.
Moreover, three hypotheses were set based on the theoretical considerations and the concentration of population in the metropolitan area due to the self-determination of life using the analysis of the current status of the region. The theoretical considerations include the issues related to lifestyles of the millennials and changes in human needs due to technological innovation, changes in jobs and social conditions, First, the regional economic downturn decreases the creation of new jobs in the region and as a result, millennials tend to move to regions where the regional economy and jobs increase. Second, the millennials move to secure the choice of jobs they want and secure self-determination of leisure time choices. In other words, due to the increase in the GNI per capita, the opportunity cost of job abandonment decreased, so millennial youth move to the metropolitan area seeking job flexibility rather than stability in job selection. Unlike the existing theory that explained the phenomenon of movement to the metropolitan area as an increase in utility due to economic effect or regional amenity, this study focuses on self-determination of life as a major cause of movement. The study further highlights the causes of millennials' migration as moving to an area with a high probability of obtaining the self-determination of life or an area with an exercisable condition exists. Third, some of the millennial youth movements in the metropolitan area are the result of finding so-called stability in an unstable economy to increase employment stability in the form of unstable employment. In other words, the reduction of low-skilled jobs due to technological innovation has resulted in groups of young people with low human capital being moved to the metropolitan area to find jobs.
To test hypotheses, we first examined the dynamic characteristics of regional economic growth and population migration between regions. Furthermore, we conduct an empirical analysis to investigate the importance of job characteristics in the migration of young people, and the factors of population movement between regions.
As a result, the growth rate of GRDP and employment in regions show a positive relationship with net mobility. In other words, it implies that the growth of the local economy has a positive external effect on employment by increasing local jobs and increasing influx of population seeking jobs from other regions. Therefore, it can be interpreted that the movement of population to the metropolitan area, which has a relatively high economic growth rate, was due to the recent economic downturn in the non-metropolitan area.
Second, in the analysis of the importance of job characteristics in young people's population mobility, it was found that the more millennial youth consider working time and aptitude when choosing a job, the higher the probability of choosing to move to the metropolitan area exist. In addition, there was a high probability that young people working in creative jobs with high human capital would choose to move between regions. In the case of young people moving to the metropolitan area, it appears that they do not think about job security as important as compared to the young people moving to the non-metropolitan area. In other words, millennials choose to move between regions by considering the type of job, working hours, and aptitude rather than job security. Thus, the more millennials value self-determination for the desired job, work type, and sufficient leisure life, the higher the probability of choosing to move between regions exists.
Third, a multiple regression model consisting of the following dependent and explanatory variables is used to analyze the population mobility factors of millennial youth. The dependent variables used in this study are net mobility rate, a value calculated by dividing move-in rate into move out rate, and a value calculated by dividing move out rate into the move-in rate. The explanatory variables are the ratio of temporary workers and daily workers, creative job density, expected wage, employment rate, average housing rent price, financial independence, cultural facilities for youth, coffee shops, convenience and retailers and etc. In addition, in order to examine the differences by age and generation, four age groups were classified which are the entire age group, 25 to 29 years old group, 30 to 34 years old group, and 40 to 64 years old group, respectively, and the analysis results of 2008 and 2018 were compared. As a result, it is found that the millennials have low expected wages, a high ratio of temporary and daily workers, and move to areas where creative jobs are concentrated. In addition, the net mobility rate is higher in areas with high financial independence and high spatial access to coffee shops. Interpreting the results based on the results of previous studies and hypotheses, it is highly likely that the middle and late 20s millennials will move to areas with a high ratio of temporary jobs that can be classified as quality jobs. However, there is also a high probability of moving to an area where the ratio of daily jobs is high, which can be seen as a case where it is difficult to get a temporary job or strategically selecting a daily job in pursuit of more relaxed and free life. In other words, it can be said that the type of unstable job is continuously changed to ultimately find a sense of stability. The millennials in their late 20s are moving into the areas where both ratios of temporary and daily workers are high and the employment rate is high because of their high self-determination right to choose the type of work they want. Also, millennials choose to move to a region where creative jobs are concentrated as a result of getting their preferred jobs. The movement of population to areas with high financial independence, which means public goods benefits, partly proved Tiebout's hypothesis. The coffee shop has developed into a place that consumes space, not just a place to sell drinks, and serves as a complex cultural space for study, work, exchange, and leisure, and has become an important amenity for millennials. The difference between the results of the analysis in 2008 and 2018 is characterized by the fact that there are many variables affecting population mobility in 2018. In other words, the population movement factors of the millennials and the past generation youth are different, and the population movement of the millennials can be explained by variables reflecting current social conditions and generation characteristics.
The outcome of this study is to describe the causes of population migration to the metropolitan area as “self-determination of life” and explain the movements between regions considering social change affecting them and generation characteristics of mobile subjects. In previous theories, income, jobs, and local amenity factors were considered to be maximized for individual utility when moving to a region with a relatively comparative advantage. However, in the case of millennial youth, it was considered that maximizing the utility of an individual is to move to an area where they can express self-determination of the job such as job and work type and securing the right to self-determination for work-leisure balance. Based on the research results, three policy implications are presented. First, it is necessary to examine various aspects of job security. Stable jobs can include cases where employment periods such as temporary jobs are guaranteed, as well as those where employment periods are unstable but can continue to work. Each worker is free to enter and exit the job market voluntarily and some workers choose a daily job that allows them to enjoy leisure time and free them from heavy responsibilities and work intensity of temporary jobs. Therefore, the youth employment policy needs to provide jobs and employment that are diverse and preferred by young people rather than uniform jobs. Second, efforts to improve local amenities are necessary for the influx of young people. Given the characteristics and lifestyle changes of the millennials, the importance of commercial facilities in the leisure space and the qualitative importance of culture, art, and sports have a direct effect on regional movement. Therefore, to attract young people, it is necessary to create an amenity to satisfy leisure life and aesthetic and convenience satisfaction. Third, it is necessary to invest in jobs and urban amenities to attract young people, mainly in non-capital metropolitan cities and metropolitan cities by region. The result of this study can be used as preliminary research to further investigate the effectiveness of government policies regarding population migration among regions.