English

An agent-based model to rural-urban migration analysis

Computational Physics 2009-11-11 v1 Statistical Mechanics Physics and Society

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the rural-urban migration phenomena as it is usually observed in economies which are in the early stages of industrialization. The analysis is conducted by means of a statistical mechanics approach which builds a computational agent-based model. Agents are placed on a lattice and the connections among them are described via an Ising like model. Simulations on this computational model show some emergent properties that are common in developing economies, such as a transitional dynamics characterized by continuous growth of urban population, followed by the equalization of expected wages between rural and urban sectors (Harris-Todaro equilibrium condition), urban concentration and increasing of per capita income.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0506021,
  title  = {An agent-based model to rural-urban migration analysis},
  author = {Jaylson J. Silveira and Aquino L. Espindola and T. J. P. Penna},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0506021},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

16 pages, 9 figures