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Following in their footsteps: an analysis of the impact of successive migration on rural household welfare in Ghana

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  • Eva-Maria Egger

    (International Fund for Agricultural Development)

  • Julie Litchfield

    (University of Sussex)

Abstract

We explore patterns of successive migration within rural households in Ghana and the impact that these successive migrants have on household welfare outcomes. Specifically, we use a household panel survey collected in 2013 and 2015. We exploit the panel nature of the data and a weighting method to overcome sources of bias. Welfare is measured with an index of housing quality. We find that successive migrants face lower migration costs, and few of them remit. We find no effect of sending a new migrant on the housing quality index. We conclude that the different nature of migration of successive migrants implies neither an economic gain for the household nor a loss. The reason is that the successive migration becomes less costly for migrants from households with prior migration experience, but at the same time, these migrants remit less or not at all compared to earlier waves of migrants.

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  • Eva-Maria Egger & Julie Litchfield, 2019. "Following in their footsteps: an analysis of the impact of successive migration on rural household welfare in Ghana," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-22, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:izamig:v:9:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1186_s40176-018-0136-4
    DOI: 10.1186/s40176-018-0136-4
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    2. Eva-Maria Egger & Julie Litchfield, 2019. "Following in their footsteps: an analysis of the impact of successive migration on rural household welfare in Ghana," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Alleluyanatha, Esther & Awotide, Bola Amoke & Dontsop-Nguezet, Paul Martins & Coulibaly, Amadou Youssouf & Bello, Lateef & Abdoulaye, Tahirou & Manyong, Victor & Bamba, Zoumana, 2021. "Effect of Youth Migration and Remittances on RURAL Households’ Livelihoods in South-Eastern Nigeria," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315200, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Eva-Maria Egger & Julie Litchfield, 2019. "Following in their footsteps: an analysis of the impact of successive migration on rural household welfare in Ghana," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-22, December.
    5. Isaac Addai, 2020. "Examining the Benefits of International Migration Ventures: The Statistics from Ghana," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 4(7), pages 159-163, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Migration; Ghana; Housing quality index; Multiple correspondence analysis; Entropy balancing weights;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • C38 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Classification Methdos; Cluster Analysis; Principal Components; Factor Analysis
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General

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