Abstract

We study the role of labor mobility restrictions in the process of urbanization. In the Russian Empire, twenty-three million people, who were serfs in 1858 and were not allowed to migrate to cities, were freed in the following twelve years. Was the removal of mobility restrictions a major factor in the subsequent urban growth? We develop a structural model of rural-urban migration incorporating restrictions on mobility for different types of peasants, features of the countryside and hypothetical urban destinations, and the travel costs for different modes of transportation. We estimate this model using novel detailed data on peasants, cities, and railroads in the Russian Empire, covering the period from 1811 to 1910. The estimated parameters suggest that construction of railroads was the single most important factor explaining rural-urban migration. On the other hand, the removal of serfdom-related mobility restrictions seems to have less explanatory power. Our within-model calculations suggest that by 1910, the total urban population enabled by the railroad network was comparable to that in a counterfactual scenario in which serfdom never existed.

Reference

Imil Nurutdinov, “Labor Mobility Restrictions and Urban Growth: Evidence from the Russian Empire”, IAST Lunch Seminar, Toulouse: IAST, February 25, 2020, 12:45–13:45, room Cafeteria TSE Building.