Moving to Economic Opportunity The Migration Response to the Fracking Boom

Exploiting positive labor market shocks from localized fracking booms, I estimate that fracking increased migration to impacted areas, but there is significant heterogeneity across both demographics and regions. Migrants to fracking areas were more likely to be male, unmarried, young, and less educated than movers more generally. These local booms increased in-migration rates to North Dakota fracking counties by nearly twice as much as other fracking areas. Differences across geography in labor market impacts, commuting behavior, initial population characteristics, or nonlinearities only partially explained this gap. There is evidence that heterogeneous information flows might be playing a role.

Automated summary

The study suggests that fracking has led to an increase in migration to affected areas due to positive labor market shocks, with significant heterogeneity across demographics and regions. Migrants to fracking areas were more likely to be male, unmarried, young, and less educated than movers more generally, indicating different characteristics of the population moving to these areas.