novafrica@novasbe.pt

NOVAFRICA Seminar:
“Migration and co-residence choices”

On Wednesday, April 26th, at 2.30pm, the NOVAFRICA Center welcomes Simone Bertoli, from CERDI, to present his work.

Authors:
Simone Bertoli (CERDI)

Abstract:
The partition of family members into separate households evolves over time, as co-residence choices can respond to time-varying incentives and constraints. The migration literature implicitly assumes that the migration of one household member is not associated with any further change in the household composition. Still, the migration of a member could be simultaneously determined with co-residence choices. For instance, it can increase of the household demand for labor-intensive services that could be satisfied by other adults joining the same household, e.g., grandparents providing child care services. If migration is associated with additional changes in co-residence choices, then the comparison of any individual or household-level outcome between migrant and non-migrant households would also capture the endogenous variation in household composition. We draw on a large rotating panel survey collected in Mexico between 2005 and 2007 to provide empirical evidence on the correlation between the occurrence of international migration episodes and additional changes in household structure. The analysis reveals that households that send one of their members to the United States have a 28 percent probability of having a new adult member joining the household in the 12 months around the migration episode, with this probability being four times larger than the one observed for non-migrant households. This probability represents a lower bound of the correlation between migration episodes and changes in co-residence choices, as we are not able to observe in the data the converse instances in which the members left behind leave their dwelling, joining another household. The analysis further evidences that the new adult household members differ in key observable characteristics with respect to the members left behind in migrant households.

Please find further information about this seminar here.