Explaining reurbanization: Empirical evidence of intraregional migration as a long-term mobility decision from Germany

Following the discussion on reurbanization (changing intra-regional migration patterns), our research project treats transport-related consequences of this spatial development in German city regions. The hypothesis is that reurbanization bears potential to spread environmentally friendly ways of organizing daily mobility – but that the chance of those positive effects might be given away, if policy does not accompany the process adequately. The aim of this project is to assess the current impact of reurbanization on passenger transport in city regions and to find further potential to reduce motorized passenger kilometres in order to deduce first planning approaches. This paper focuses on the question whether a household decides to move or to stay in its current dwelling and also analyses how the results vary in time and space. After having deduced determinants on the decision to move, a logistic regression is run on the SOEP-data. The analysis reveals behavioural change of households with more than one employed person and related to the event “birth” since the late 1980ies. Spatial variation of the probability to move rather results from structural differences of the locations.