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Selection, selection, selection: the impact of return migration

Selection, selection, selection: the impact of return migration
Selection, selection, selection: the impact of return migration
The evidence on the impact of return migration on the sending country is rather sparse, though growing. The contribution of this paper is in addressing various selectivity problems while quantifying the impact of return migration on wages of returnees using non-experimental data. Using Egyptian household-level survey data, I estimate the wages of return migrants controlling for several selectivity biases arising from emigration choice, return migration choice, labor force participation choice, and occupational choice following return. The findings provide strong evidence that overseas temporary migration results in a wage premium upon return, even after controlling for the various potential selection biases. However, the estimates underscore the significance of controlling for both emigration and return migration selections. Ignoring the double selectivity in migration would overestimate the impact of return migration on the wage premium of returnees, as migrants are positively selected relative to non-migrants, but returnees are negatively selected among migrants.
international return migration, wages, developing countries
0933-1433
535-563
Wahba, Jackline
03ae9304-c329-40c6-9bfc-d91cfa9e7164
Wahba, Jackline
03ae9304-c329-40c6-9bfc-d91cfa9e7164

Wahba, Jackline (2015) Selection, selection, selection: the impact of return migration. Journal of Population Economics, 28 (3), 535-563. (doi:10.1007/s00148-015-0541-4).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The evidence on the impact of return migration on the sending country is rather sparse, though growing. The contribution of this paper is in addressing various selectivity problems while quantifying the impact of return migration on wages of returnees using non-experimental data. Using Egyptian household-level survey data, I estimate the wages of return migrants controlling for several selectivity biases arising from emigration choice, return migration choice, labor force participation choice, and occupational choice following return. The findings provide strong evidence that overseas temporary migration results in a wage premium upon return, even after controlling for the various potential selection biases. However, the estimates underscore the significance of controlling for both emigration and return migration selections. Ignoring the double selectivity in migration would overestimate the impact of return migration on the wage premium of returnees, as migrants are positively selected relative to non-migrants, but returnees are negatively selected among migrants.

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e-pub ahead of print date: 29 January 2015
Published date: 1 July 2015
Keywords: international return migration, wages, developing countries
Organisations: Economics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 374178
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/374178
ISSN: 0933-1433
PURE UUID: a50012fa-aa22-4d0e-bc9a-a25a05104296
ORCID for Jackline Wahba: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0002-3443

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Date deposited: 09 Feb 2015 11:36
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:49

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