Date of Award

12-2002

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Resource Economics and Policy

Advisor

Kathleen P. Bell

Second Committee Member

Todd M. Gabe

Third Committee Member

Gary L. Hunt

Abstract

Residential location choices are analyzed to determine the significance of local attributes in the moving decision. A unique data set consisting of 602 recent movers in Maine is used to perform the analysis. Additionally, municipality-level data for 531 municipalities in Maine are used in the analysis. The community-level data are fiscal, social, and environmental in nature. A conditional logit model is estimated to model the choice of community as a function of the community characteristics, and a mixed logit model is estimated to model the choice of community as a function of both community characteristics and characteristics of the household. The results suggest that quality of life attributes (specifically school quality, crime rate, parkland, lakes, and coast) play a significant role in a household's choice of community.

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