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Migration and mental health: Evidence from a natural experiment

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  • Stillman, Steven
  • McKenzie, David
  • Gibson, John

Abstract

People migrate to improve their well-being. Yet a large literature suggests that migration can be a stressful process, with potentially negative impacts on mental health. However, to truly understand the effect of migration one must compare the mental health of migrants to what their mental health would be had they stayed in their home country. The existing literature is not able to do this. New Zealand allows a quota of Tongans to immigrate each year with a random ballot used to choose amongst the excess number of applicants. Experimental estimates of the mental health effects of migration are obtained by comparing the mental health of migrants who were successful applicants in the random ballot to the mental health of those who applied to migrate under the quota, but whose names were not drawn. Migration is found to lead to improvements in mental health, particularly for women and those with poor mental health.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Health Economics.

Volume (Year): 28 (2009)
Issue (Month): 3 (May)
Pages: 677-687

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Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:28:y:2009:i:3:p:677-687

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505560

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Keywords: Migration Mental health Natural experiment;

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References

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  1. James Heckman & Neil Hohmann & Jeffrey Smith & Michael Khoo, 2000. "Substitution And Dropout Bias In Social Experiments: A Study Of An Influential Social Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 115(2), pages 651-694, May.
  2. David McKenzie & John Gibson & Steven Stillman, 2006. "How Important is Selection? Experimental vs Non-experimental Measures of Income Gains from Migration," Working Papers in Economics 06/03, University of Waikato, Department of Economics.
  3. Victor Chernozhukov & Christian Hansen, 2005. "An IV Model of Quantile Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(1), pages 245-261, 01.
  4. Joshua D. Angrist, 2003. "Treatment Effect Heterogeneity in Theory and Practice," NBER Working Papers 9708, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Das, Jishnu & Do, Quy-Toan & Friedman, Jed & McKenzie, David & Scott, Kinnon, 2007. "Mental health and poverty in developing countries: Revisiting the relationship," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 467-480, August.
  6. David McKenzie & Steven Stillman & John Gibson, 2010. "How Important is Selection? Experimental VS. Non‐Experimental Measures of the Income Gains from Migration," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 913-945, 06.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Bernard M.S. Van Praag & Dmitri Romanov & Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2010. "Happiness and Financial Satisfaction in Israel. Effects of Religiosity, Ethnicity, and War," CESifo Working Paper Series 3181, CESifo Group Munich.
  2. Gibson, John & McKenzie, David & Stillman, Steven, 2009. "The Impacts of International Migration on Remaining Household Members: Omnibus Results from a Migration Lottery Program," IZA Discussion Papers 4375, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  3. David McKenzie & John Gibson & Steven Stillman, 2007. "Moving to Opportunity, Leaving Behind What? Evaluating the Initial Effects of a Migration Policy on Incomes and Poverty in Source Areas," Working Papers in Economics 07/23, University of Waikato, Department of Economics.
  4. Cris Beauchemin & Amparo González-Ferrer, 2011. "Sampling international migrants with origin-based snowballing method:," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(3), pages 103-134, July.
  5. David McKenzie & Dean Yang, 2010. "Experimental Approaches in Migration Studies," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1017, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London.
  6. John Gibson & Steven Stillman & David McKenzie & Halahingano Rohorua, 2010. "Natural Experiment Evidence on the Effect of Migration on Blood Pressure and Hypertension," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1024, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London.
  7. Steven Stillman & John Gibson & David McKenzie & Halahingano Rohorua, 2012. "Miserable Migrants? Natural Experiment Evidence on International Migration and Objective and Subjective Well-Being," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1228, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London.
  8. David McKenzie, 2012. "Learning about migration through experiments," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1207, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London.
  9. Pedro Pita Barros & Isabel Medalho Pereira, 2009. "Health Care and Health Outcomes of Migrants: Evidence from Portugal," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2009-28, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), revised Jul 2009.
  10. Rob Hodgson & Jacques Poot, 2011. "New Zealand Research on the Economic Impacts of Immigration 2005-2010: Synthesis and Research Agenda," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1104, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London.
  11. Fransen, Sonja & Kuschminder, Katie & Siegel, Melissa, 2012. "Implementation of cross-country migration surveys in conflict-affected settings: Lessons from the IS Academy survey in Burundi and Ethiopia," UNU-MERIT Working Paper Series 019, United Nations University, Maastricht Economic and social Research and training centre on Innovation and Technology.
  12. Switek, Malgorzata, 2012. "Internal Migration and Life Satisfaction: Well-Being Effects of Moving as a Young Adult," IZA Discussion Papers 7016, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

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