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

46 Pages Posted: 28 Jan 2019

See all articles by Elie Murard

Elie Murard

IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Nova School of Business and Economics

Abstract

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.

Keywords: selectivity, migration, sample selection, bounds, principal stratification

JEL Classification: C21, F22, J61, O15

Suggested Citation

Murard, Elie, The Impact of Migration on Family Left Behind: Estimation in Presence of Intra-Household Selection of Migrants. IZA Discussion Paper No. 12094, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3323209 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3323209

Elie Murard (Contact Author)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Nova School of Business and Economics ( email )

Campus de Carcavelos
Rua da Holanda, 1
Carcavelos, 2775-405
Portugal

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