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ABSTRACT: In this paper the wellbeing outcomes of rural to urban movers in Australia are studied. This is done using regression techniques to control for observable and unobservable factors that may influence outcomes. Data from the Households, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey is used. It is found that males do not experience any change in wellbeing due to moving, while females experience a 7 per cent increase after 2-3 years. Implications of both economic and psychological theories are discussed in relation to the likely effect of moving upon wellbeing. It is argued that the findings here justify further research into rural wellbeing with a focus on gender specific outcomes.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Economic and social inequality between rural and urban areas has been persistent in Australia. Rural areas have been overrepresented in the distribution of Australian socioeconomic disadvantage (Ciurej, Tanton and Sutcliff2006).3 The rural problem of pervasive out-migration (particularly of young people) has been partially attributed to these inequalities (Gibson and Argent 2008). In the case of young people, structural factors including limited educational and employment opportunities have dominated explanation of this trend (Geldens 2007; Eacott and Sonn 2006; Alston 2004). It has also been suggested that social factors may have some influence with some young people reporting migration as a natural progression and the presence of a stigma that those leftbehind were 'failures' (Geldens 2007; Eacott and Sonn 2006).
The migration trend has been apparent for many years with the rate of net migration to remote areas equal to -6.2 per cent between 1991 and 1996 and -7.6 per cent between 1996 and 2001 (Garnett and Lewis 2007). If inland areas are included in the classification of 'rural,' the trend is still apparent although less severe, with net migration figures of 1.9 and 2.4 per cent for the periods 1991 to 1996 and 1996 to 2001 respectively. More than half of the migrants from inland and remote Australia have migrated to capital cities and other metropolitan areas with populations of more than 100,000 people. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2003) census data reaffirms this, showing that country Australia had a net migration loss of -91,487 people, at a rate of -226 per 1,000 of the usual...