Business cycles, migration and health

We investigate the proposition that illness poses as an obstacle to one's ability to use migration to hedge the business cycle. We employ data on migration, regional unemployment rates and health status from 10 years (1984–1993) of the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Our results provide considerable for support this proposition. The evidence is the strongest for men, but we also find weaker evidence for married women. These results suggest that—ceterus paribus—aggregate health outcomes in an area should improve when the regional economy expands.