The Weeds

Why it’s so hard to move in America

03.08.2022 - By VoxPlay

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Dylan Matthews and Jerusalem Demsas are joined by Nick Buttrick (@NickButtrick), a psychologist at Princeton, to talk about interstate mobility in the US (or the lack thereof). They talk about why it is so hard to move; why some of those reasons, Jerusalem argues, are arbitrary; and what an immobile population means for American culture.  

References:

Jerusalem’s article about why it’s so hard to move in America

Nick Buttrick’s research: The cultural dynamics of declining residential mobility

A paper from David Schleicher called Stuck! The Law and Economics of Residential Stagnation  

Research from the Brookings Institution: US migration still at historically low levels

NBER paper: The China Shock: Learning from Labor Market Adjustment to Large Changes in Trade

Hosts:

Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox

Jerusalem Demsas (@jerusalemdemsas), policy reporter, Vox

Credits:

Sofi LaLonde, producer and engineer

Libby Nelson, editorial adviser

Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts

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