A School of Public Health (SPH) research center has received a $330,000 grant to establish a unique program which will study the relationship between the migration of populations and economic development, officials at SPH announced yesterday.

Researchers at SPH's Center for Population Studies organized the program, funded by the grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, because the topic of migration and economic development has recently been neglected by scholars, David Bell, director of the center, said yesterday.

Israell Overseer

Oded Stark, a visiting professor of economics at Bar-llam University in Israel, will oversee the program which will enable graduate students and visiting scholars to participate in the specially designed research projects and seminars.

Although he is in Israel and could not be reached for comment yesterday. Stark said in a press statement that the program will investigate certain trends from new angles, including the tendency for people in developing countries to move from agricultural to urban areas, a movement which most scholars have called detrimental to development.

"A broader and more constructive approach would surely be to ask how far rural-to-urban migration can be made into a vehicle of national development and political betterment." Stark added in the statement.

Don't Just Look

The program also differs from other studies because it will look at the economic implications of the rural-to-urban movement rather than the normal sociological focus. Anslee Coale, a noted Princeton University demographer who serves on the program's advisory committee, said yesterday. "This is different than just sitting there and deploring the slums," he added.

The Mellon grant covers expenses for three years but SPH officials said yesterday that looking for more money or possibly expanding the current timetable would depend on the program's success.

Stark will begin the second year of his leave at Harvard next fall Bell said adding that the Israeli professor could request to extend his time in Cambridge throughout the three years scheduled for the program.

The program is one of the more than 20 already being conducted throughout 21 departments and centers Dr. Jay Winsten director of health policy information at SPH, said yesterday.

In addition to Bell and Coale the interdepartment faculty advisory committee includes Peter Timmer, Black Professor of Economics (Chairman) William Alonso Saltonstall Professor of Population Policy Zv Grilichesy Ropes professors of Political Economy Dwight Perkins Director of the Harvard Institute for International Development and Myron Weiner an MIT professor of political science