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

Long-term effects of the 1923 mass refugee inflow on social cohesion in Greece

After the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish conflict, 1.2 million Greek Orthodox were forcibly displaced from Turkey to Greece, increasing the host population by 20 percent within a few months. Refugees were provided with farmland, new houses and schools, and were granted the Greek citizenship. This paper analyses the social integration outcomes of refugees from the first and second generations, as well as the long-term effect of their resettlement on the social cohesion of receiving communities. Combining historical and modern population censuses and surveys, I find that, by the 2000s, refugees display a high rate of intermarriage with Greek natives, report levels of trust in others and in institutions similar to natives, vote for similar political parties, and exhibit higher political and civic engagement than natives. The integration of refugees was notably fostered by the construction of new schools which helped close the literacy gap with native children shortly after refugees’ arrival in Greece. At the local level, places with higher share of refugees in 1928 display greater participation in voluntary associations 80 years later. I find no evidence that refugees either reduced voter turnout, increased political fragmentation, or led to higher levels of crime in places of resettlement. These results may suggest that early investments in inclusion policies can be effective at fostering refugees’ assimilation, at least when newcomers and locals have similar cultural profiles

Less Welfare or Fewer Foreigners? Immigrant Inflows and Public Opinion towards Redistribution and Migration Policy

I examine the effect of immigrant inflows in Europe on natives' individual attitudes towards redistribution and immigration policy over the last decade. Unlike previous studies, I analyze the evolution over time of these two types of attitudes in a joint empirical framework. Using migration data at the NUTS regional level from the European Labor Force Survey and individual attitudes data from the European Social Survey, I exploit variation over time and across regions in the size and composition of immigrant inflows. I address the endogeneity of immigrant inflows by using a shift share instrument and within-country specification. I find evidence coherent with a theoretical model in which individual attitudes depend essentially on how immigration is perceived to affect wages and net welfare benefits. Specifically, I find that, when immigrants tend to compete with natives for jobs (due to having similar skills or occupations), natives prefer policies that support welfare and put restrictions on migration. When migrants are mostly low-skilled (high-skilled), European citizens typically favor lower (higher) levels of redistribution

Replication Data for: "On the joint consumption and labor supply effects of migration on those left behind"

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The Impact of Migration on Family Left Behind: Estimation in Presence of Intra-Household Selection of Migrants

This paper reexamines the literature on the impact of migration on household members left behind at origin. The empirical problem previous studies address is the self-selection of households into migration, i.e. the endogenous decision as to whether or not send a migrant. Yet, the subsequent selection of which family members migrate and which stay behind generates additional identification problems that have remained largely ignored. To tackle this second form of selectivity within the households, I model the behavior of families using latent stratification and potential outcome (Imbens and Angrist, 1994; Rubin, 1974). I show that the point-identification of the causal impact of migration requires strong behavioral assumptions rarely satisfied even with ideal experimental data. As a practical solution, I derive non parametric bounds under different sets of weaker assumptions. Using Mexican panel data, I show that standard estimates ignoring the intra-household selection into migration may suffer from substantial bias

Migration and co-residence choices: Evidence from Mexico

International audienceThe migration literature typically assumes that the migration of a household member is not associated with further variations in co-residence choices. We rely on a Mexican panel survey to provide novel evidence on the correlation between the occurrence of an international migration episode and changes in household composition. Migrant households have a higher probability of receiving a new member within one year around the migration episode. Attrition is significantly higher among migrant households, and we provide evidence that this is partly due to the dissolution of the household of origin of the migrant. The endogeneity of co-residence choices induces an undercount of migration episodes, as shown with data from the 2000 Census. This has implications for the analysis of migrant selection and of the effects on the individuals left behind. Dealing with these analytical challenges requires an approach to data collection that is less dependent on variations in household composition

Migration and Co-Residence Choices: Evidence from Mexico

Household composition is traditionally regarded as exogenous in economic analyses. The migration literature typically assumes that the migration of a household member is not associated with further variations in co-residence choices. We rely on a large Mexican panel survey to provide novel evidence on the correlation between the occurrence of an international migration episode and additional changes in household composition. Migrant households have a 34.5 percent higher probability of receiving a new member within one year after the migration episode. Attrition is significantly higher among migrant households, and we provide suggestive evidence that this is due to the dissolution of the household of origin of the migrant, with all its members left behind joining another household. The endogeneity of co-residence choices has implications for survey-based measurement of migration flows, for the analysis of selection into migration, and for the effects of migration on the individuals left behind

Changes in living arrangements and the effects of migration and remittances in Mexico

International audienceWe provide evidence that most Mexican children exposed to the international migration of their fathers experience further variations in their living arrangements, or the dissolution of the marital union of their parents. Children left behind typically join the household of their maternal grandparents. These changes have relevant implications for the analysis of the e\u000Bffects of migration and remittances: they interfere with the identi\u000Ccation of instances of paternal migration in standard cross-sectional or longitudinal surveys, and they can give rise to heterogeneity in the eff\u000Bects of interest making some key household-level variables endogenous with respect to the treatment

Mass Refugee Inflow and Long-Run Prosperity: Lessons from the Greek Population Resettlement

This paper investigates the long-term consequences of mass refugee inflow on economic development by examining the effect of the first large-scale population resettlement in modern history. After the Greco-Turkish war of 1919–1922, 1.2 million Greek Orthodox were forcibly resettled from Turkey to Greece, increasing the Greek population by more than 20% within a few months. We build a novel geocoded dataset locating settlements of refugees across the universe of more than four thousand Greek municipalities that existed in Greece in 1920. Exploiting the spatial variation in the resettlement location, we find that localities with a greater share of refugees in 1923 have today higher earnings, higher levels of household wealth, greater educational attainment, as well as larger financial and manufacturing sectors. These results hold when comparing spatially contiguous municipalities with identical geographical features and are not driven by pre-settlement differences in initial level of development across localities. The long-run beneficial effects appear to arise from agglomeration economies generated by the large increase in the workforce, occupational specialization, as well as by new industrial know-hows brought by refugees, which fostered early industrialization and economic growth

Left behind, but not immobile : Living arrangements of Mexican transnational households

International audienceWe provide evidence that most Mexican children exposed to the international migration of their fathers experience further variations in their living arrangements, or the dissolution of the marital union of their parents. Children left behind typically join the household of their maternal grandparents. These changes have relevant implications for the analysis of the effects of migration and remittances: they interfere with the identification of instances of paternal migration in standard cross-sectional or longitudinal surveys, and they can give rise to heterogeneity in the effects of interest making some key household-level variables endogenous with respect to the treatment