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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (Oct. 23, 2015) — Do changing attitudes towards marijuana usage and same-sex marriage make people want to pack up and move to another state? If so, how does that affect the local economy?
Milligan College’s Dr. David Campbell, associate professor of economics and director of the college’s Master of Business Administration program, addresses this very question and more in his lecture, “Interstate Migration in Response to Social Liberalizations: Same Sex Unions and Marijuana,” on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. in Hyder Auditorium located in Milligan’s Science Building. This event is free and open to the public.
“Same sex unions and marijuana use are two issues over which individual states were able to exert considerable control in recent years,” said Campbell. “This created the opportunity for individuals to move to states with stances on these issues that more closely align with their own.”
Campbell examined 50 states over the period 2005 through 2013 and is able to estimate the significance state policies have on interstate migration.
“That data can tell you the rate at which individuals enter or leave a state in response to relevant policy changes on these issues,” said Campbell, who, prior to joining Milligan’s faculty in 2006, served as the financial center manager for the Bank of Tennessee and also worked six years as an economist for the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C.
“My lecture is an observational study of these issues only, not a value judgment on either of these issues,” said Campbell. “I’m attempting to determine what either happened or did not happen.”
Ultimately, Campbell will examine how this phenomena potentially can change the economics of a region.