Economic linkages between urban and rural regions – what’s in it for the rural?

Urban–rural interdependences are modelled based on wages, cost of living, and interregional migration and commuting. Rural-to-urban commuting generates a scenario where the relative level of urban wages can continue to outperform rural wages without residential migration and increased costs of living acting as equilibrating forces. The spread of urban workers could be detrimental for rural regions without clear mechanisms for their human and financial capital to penetrate local economies. Therefore, ‘what’s in it for the rural?’ depends upon the ability of rural regions to capture the value attached to highly mobile, skilled workers choosing to live in the rural region.