Remittances and Occupational Outcomes of the Household Members Left-Behind

This paper analyses the role of remittances and migration on the occupational outcomes of the household members left behind in Tajikistan. Using the control function approach, we show that, contrary to some existing evidence, there is no dependency effect of remittances. Our results show that remittances received by households in Tajikistan have an important contribution to generate employment opportunities for those remaining in the country. This is likely to have a positive impact on the growth and development in Tajikistan. The results obtained are likely to have policy implications for other developing countries as well

The Short and Long-term Impact of International Migration on Human Capital Formation of the Left Behind

This paper examines the short and long-term impact of international migration on overall human capital formation as well as the quality of human capital formation of the left behind households in the community of origin. Exploiting a unique migration policy, we find that the time passed since the migration event took place could affect the human capital formation of the left behind households differently. Furthermore, we find that international migration could also impact overall human capital as well as the quality of human capital formation differently.In particular, we do not find any impact of short and long-term international migration on the overall human capital formation of the left-behind household members. However, we find that households with long-term migrants are more likely to switch from a lower quality of education and substituting it with a higher quality of education of the left behind household members

Labour Migration and Time Use Patterns of the Left-Behind Children and Elderly in Rural China

Rural-urban migration has become a major feature of the Chinese economy since the mid-1990s. Due to institutional arrangements and economic and cultural factors, massive labor migration has resulted in a large left-behind population consisting of children, non-elderly married women, and the elderly. This paper examines the impacts of labor migration on time use patterns of the left-behind elderly people and children in rural China, using data derived from the China’s health and Nutrition Health Survey (CHNS) for the period between 1997 and 2006. The results show that the migration of household members increases the time spent on farm work and domestic work for the left-behind elderly, and the migration of parents increases the time spent on farm work and domestic work for the left-behind children. Importantly, migration has striking gender differentiated impacts with the increase in work time being greater for elderly women and girls than elderly men and boys. These results have important policy implications.

Accounting for selectivity and duration-dependent heterogeneity when estimating the impact of emigration on incomes and poverty in sending areas

The impacts of international emigration and remittances on incomes and poverty in sending areas are increasingly studied with household survey data. But comparing households with and without emigrants is complicated by a triple-selectivity problem: first, households self-select into emigration; second, in some emigrant households everyone moves while others leave members behind; and third, some emigrants choose to return to the origin country. Allowing for duration-dependent heterogeneity introduces a fourth form of selectivity—we must now worry not just about whether households migrate, but also when they do so. This paper sets out these selectivity issues and their implications for existing migration studies and then addresses them by using survey data designed specifically to take advantage of a randomized lottery that determines which applicants to the oversubscribed Samoan Quota (SQ) may immigrate to New Zealand. We compare incomes and poverty rates among left-behind members in households in Samoa that sent SQ emigrants with those for members of similar households that were unsuccessful in the lottery. Policy rules control who can accompany the principal migrant, providing an instrument to address the second selectivity problem, while differences among migrants in which year their ballot was selected allow us to estimate duration effects. We find that migration reduced poverty among former household members but also find suggestive evidence that this effect may be short-lived as both remittances and agricultural income are negatively related to the duration that the migrant has been abroad

The Impacts of International Migration on Remaining Household Members: Omnibus Results from a Migration Lottery Program

The impacts of international migration on development in the sending countries, and especially the effects on remaining household members, are increasingly studied. However, comparisons of households in developing countries with and without migrants are complicated by a double-selectivity problem: households self-select into migration, and among households involved in migration, some send a subset of members with the rest remaining whilst other households migrate en masse. We address these selectivity issues using the randomization provided by an immigration ballot under the Pacific Access Category (PAC) of New Zealand’s immigration policy. We survey applicants to the 2002-05 PAC ballots in Tonga and compare outcomes for the remaining household members of emigrants with those for members of similar households who were unsuccessful in the ballots. The immigration laws determine which household members can accompany the principal migrant, providing an instrument to address the second selectivity issue. Using this natural experiment we examine the myriad impacts that migration has on remaining household members, focussing on labor supply, income, durable assets, financial service usage, diet and physical and mental health and use multiple hypothesis testing procedures to examine which impacts are robust. We find the overall impact on households left behind to be largely negative. We also find evidence that both sources of selectivity matter, leading studies which fail to adequately address them to misrepresent the impact of migration.Emigration, Natural Experiment, Selectivity, Wellbeing, Remittances

The impacts of international migration on remaining household members : omnibus results from a migration lottery program

The impacts of international migration on development in the sending countries, and especially the effects on remaining household members, are increasingly studied. However, comparisons of households in developing countries with and without migrants are complicated by a double-selectivity problem: households self-select into migration, and among households involved in migration, some send a subset of members with the rest remaining while other households migrate en masse. The authors address these selectivity issues using the randomization provided by an immigration ballot under the Pacific Access Category of New Zealand’s immigration policy. They survey applicants to the 2002-05 ballots in Tonga and compare outcomes for the remaining household members of emigrants with those for members of similar households that were unsuccessful in the ballots. The immigration laws determine which household members can accompany the principal migrant, providing an instrument to address the second selectivity issue. Using this natural experiment, the authors examine the myriad impacts that migration has on remaining household members, focussing on labor supply, income, durable assets, financial service usage, diet, and physical and mental health. The analysis uses multiple hypothesis testing procedures to examine which impacts are robust. The findings indicate that the overall impact on households left behind is largely negative. The findings also reveal evidence that both sources of selectivity matter, leading studies that fail to adequately address them to misrepresent the impact of migration.Population Policies,Access to Finance,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Housing&Human Habitats,Anthropology

The Impacts of International Migration on Remaining Household Members: Omnibus Results from a Migration Lottery Program

The impacts of international migration on development in the sending countries, and especially the effects on remaining household members, are increasingly studied. However, comparisons of households in developing countries with and without migrants are complicated by a double-selectivity problem: households self-select into migration, and among households involved in migration, some send a subset of members with the rest remaining whilst other households migrate en masse. We address these selectivity issues using the randomization provided by an immigration ballot under the Pacific Access Category (PAC) of New Zealand's immigration policy. We survey applicants to the 2002-05 PAC ballots in Tonga and compare outcomes for the remaining household members of emigrants with those for members of similar households who were unsuccessful in the ballots. The immigration laws determine which household members can accompany the principal migrant, providing an instrument to address the second selectivity issue. Using this natural experiment we examine the myriad impacts that migration has on remaining household members, focussing on labor supply, income, durable assets, financial service usage, diet and physical and mental health and use multiple hypothesis testing procedures to examine which impacts are robust. We find the overall impact on households left behind to be largely negative. We also find evidence that both sources of selectivity matter, leading studies which fail to adequately address them to misrepresent the impact of migration.wellbeing, selectivity, natural experiment, emigration, remittances

Temporary migrants and gender housework division among left-behind household members

We examine whether Vietnamese migrant workers induce different gender roles in housework division among their left-behind household members. Using two waves of Vietnamese Household Living Standard Surveys (2006-2008), we apply the first-difference method and deploy a simple household fixed effects model with instrumental variables for robustness check. We find temporary female migrants are associated with a higher probability of undertaking housework by left-behind male members and there is a reduction in the gender gap of time spent on chores. However, we find little evidence for a similar reduction in the gender gap where household size is altered for other reasons

Consumption and Leisure: The Welfare Impact of Migration on Family Left Behind

This paper examines the effect of international migration on the welfare of family members left behind at the origin. Previous literature has produced inconclusive evidence, with some studies suggesting that migration reduces income poverty while others show that non-migrants bear a larger work burden to compensate for the loss of migrants' earnings. This paper provides a new unified framework that generates testable predictions of whether migration increases non-migrants' welfare in terms of both consumption and leisure time. Drawing on household panel data in rural Mexico, I find that migration increases non-migrants' consumption, but that this consumption gain cannot be explained by labor supply adjustments. Migration improves left-behinds' welfare through two different channels: (i) migrants' remittances exceed their forgone income contribution to the origin household; and (ii) the out-migration of a farmer increases the marginal productivity of agricultural labor for those left behind in the farm

Remittances, Labour Supply and Activity of Household Members Left-Behind

This paper analyses the role of remittances on labour supply and activity of household members left behind, by explicitly distinguishing between different types of self employment. Contrary to the existing evidence, we find no ‘dependency’ effect of remittances. Our results show that remittances received by households in Tajikistan decrease the probability of wage employment and increase that of small-scale self employment activities of men staying behind, without affecting the number of job specific hours worked. Any positive effect on economic development would be, however, limited, as self-employment is in rather small-scale activities that do not generate a regular income stream