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Telecom Expansion and Internal Migrants in Indian Cities

Prof. Arnab Dutta & Gregory F. Randolph

Journal of Regional Science2026https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.70060article
AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

This paper estimates the impact of mobile phone service expansion on migration to and between cities of India during 2001–2011. We show that the number of cross‐state migrants living in urban areas of India increased significantly due to telecommunications infrastructure growth. The increased migration reflects better labor and marriage market information transmission across regions as well as a positive labor demand shock in the service sector resulting from telecom expansion. The evidence indicates that telecommunications technologies act as forces of urban concentration, disproving the “death of distance” hypothesis. Furthermore, our findings imply that technological growth can reduce the barriers to internal migration in developing countries.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.70060

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@article{prof.2026,
  title        = {{Telecom Expansion and Internal Migrants in Indian Cities}},
  author       = {Prof. Arnab Dutta & Gregory F. Randolph},
  journal      = {Journal of Regional Science},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.70060},
}

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Telecom Expansion and Internal Migrants in Indian Cities

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.