The purpose of this article is to evaluate the importance of wages differentials between
migrants and non migrants and determine what account for it among habitants of Yaoundé
and Douala, two cosmopolite cities of Cameroon. We use data derived from the Employment
and Informal Sector Survey implemented by the National Institute of Statistics in 2005.
Econometric analyses of the migration decision, based on a sample of 3585 individuals,
indicate that migration and participation decision are negatively correlated. After controlling
for migration and labor force selection, results show that there exist a 12.8% wage differential
in favor of migrants due to endowments (10.1%) and unexplained factors (2.7%). Yet, this
wage differential does not determine speculative migration decisions to urban Cameroon.