Economic factors affecting rural migration in Iran

This paper aims to measure effective economic factors on rural migration in Iran. For this purpose, simultaneous equation system estimated for period of 1974-2007. The results indicated that improvement of income distribution, government spending in rural construction, reduction of wage gap between urban and rural areas as well as investment in agricultural sector would lead to reducing migration to cities. Also increase in agricultural price index, literacy rate, economic growth and farm size had negative impact on migration. According to the results government spending in rural infrastructure, decreasing wage gap between rural and urban areas and providing facilities for investment could cause migration rate to decrease.