Compare methods

	Push-Pull Factor Analysis	New Economics of Labor Migration Test
Field	Migration Studies	Migration Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Regression model
Year of origin	1966	1985
Originator	Everett S. Lee	Oded Stark & David E. Bloom; Oded Stark & J. Edward Taylor
Type	Conceptual decomposition framework for migration determinants	Household-level econometric test of migration as risk and relative-deprivation strategy
Seminal source	Lee, E. S. (1966). A Theory of Migration. Demography, 3(1), 47-57.	Stark, O., & Bloom, D. E. (1985). The New Economics of Labor Migration. American Economic Review, 75(2), 173-178.
Aliases	Push and Pull Framework, Lee's Migration Framework, Origin-Destination Factor Analysis, Plus-Minus Factor Model of Migration	NELM Test, Relative Deprivation Migration Model, Household Risk-Diversification Migration Test, Stark-Bloom Migration Model
Related	3	3
Summary	Push-pull factor analysis is the framework, formalized by Everett Lee in his 1966 article 'A Theory of Migration,' that decomposes every migration decision into four classes of force: factors at the area of origin that repel, factors at the area of destination that attract, a set of intervening obstacles between the two, and personal factors specific to the migrant. Lee argued that each place carries a mix of pluses, minuses, and zeros whose valence differs from person to person, and that migration occurs when the net balance of these forces, discounted by the obstacles and filtered by individual circumstance, favors moving. The framework's enduring appeal is that it organizes the bewildering variety of migration causes into a single comparative logic of origin versus destination. Massey and colleagues' 1993 review placed push-pull within the broader landscape of migration theory, noting both its descriptive power and its lack of a deeper behavioral mechanism. In empirical practice the framework is operationalized by comparing measurable attributes of origin and destination areas and relating their differentials to observed flows. It remains the default conceptual scaffolding for organizing migration determinants in policy and applied research.	The new economics of labor migration (NELM), launched by Oded Stark and David Bloom in 1985, recasts migration as a decision made by households rather than isolated individuals and as a strategy aimed at managing risk and relative standing rather than simply maximizing one earner's wage. In the neoclassical view a worker migrates because expected earnings abroad exceed earnings at home; NELM argues instead that families in economies with missing or imperfect insurance and credit markets send a member away to diversify income sources and to relax the constraints those market failures impose. Stark and Taylor's 1991 paper added a second, distinctive motive: households migrate to reduce their relative deprivation — their position in the local income distribution — so that a family can be absolutely well-off yet still send a migrant because it feels poor relative to neighbors. Testing NELM therefore means estimating migration and remittance behavior as functions of household risk exposure and relative deprivation, not just the wage gap. Massey and colleagues' 1993 review positioned NELM as the principal theoretical rival to neoclassical migration economics. The test is fundamentally a household-level econometric exercise that pits these motives against the simple expected-income account.