This article examines the implications of urban growth on youth migration decisions in Nigeria. We use night light intensity data combined with Living Standards Measurement Study‐Integrated Surveys on Agriculture data, as an indicator of urban growth and associated economic opportunities. Employing alternative econometric approaches that exploit the spatial and temporal differences in urban growth as proxied by night light intensity, we find that urban growth in potential migrant destinations encourages youth migration. We also find heterogeneous responses to urban growth among various groups of youth as well as varying responses to different types of migration. Broadly, women and those youth with more education are more likely to migrate, while those in households with livestock are less likely to migrate. Often, however, the effects are complex and varied. For example, land and physical asset ownership encourage temporary migration; but greater land ownership discourages permanent migration, while physical assets have insignificant effects. Our results from Nigeria show that policy makers concerned about rural–urban youth exodus should adopt a differentiated, in terms of targets, and multidimensional policy approach to reap the benefits of urbanization while avoiding its negative consequences.

中文翻译：

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撒哈拉以南非洲地区的青年移民决定：来自尼日利亚的基于卫星的经验证据

本文研究了城市增长对尼日利亚青年移民决策的影响。我们将夜光强度数据与生活水平测量研究-农业数据综合调查相结合，作为城市发展和相关经济机会的指标。我们采用替代的计量经济学方法，利用夜间光照强度所代表的城市增长的时空差异，我们发现潜在移民目的地的城市增长会鼓励青年移民。我们还发现，不同年龄段的年轻人对城市发展的反应不一，对不同类型移民的反应也不同。从广义上讲，妇女和受过高等教育的年轻人更有可能迁徙，而有牲畜的家庭中的妇女迁徙的可能性较小。但是，通常 影响是复杂而多样的。例如，土地和实物资产的所有权鼓励临时移民；但是更大的土地所有权会阻止永久移民，而有形资产的影响却微不足道。我们从尼日利亚获得的结果表明，关注城乡青年流亡的决策者应该在目标和多维政策方法上采取差异化的方法，以从城市化中获得收益，同时避免其带来的负面影响。