Investigating the Impact of Poverty on the Migration of Rural to Urban Area in Iran

Iran, as a developing country, is intentionally or unintentionally facing with the phenomenon of migration from rural to urban area, which is of great importance from the policy maker's point of view. It can play a very important role in the development of policies, therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of poverty on the migration from rural to urban area of Iran for the period of 1985 to 2013 using ARDL model. According to the results, the poverty, the ratio of urban to rural wage and the difference between rural and urban Gini coefficient have significant and positive impact on migration from rural to urban area. While the labor productivity in the agriculture sector have a statistically negative and significant impact on the migration from rural to urban area. Therefore, it is recommended that the government reduce the rural poverty and wage gap between rural and urban area.