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New evidence on the healthy immigrant effect

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  • Lídia Farré

Abstract

This paper presents new evidence that immigrants have better health than natives upon arrival to their destination. It analyzes a very interesting episode in international migration, namely the exodus of Ecuadorians in the aftermath of the economic collapse in the late 1990s. More than 600,000 Ecuadorians from 1999 to 2005 left their homeland, most relocating in Spain. Using information from the birth certificate data, the paper compares the birth outcomes of immigrant women in Spain not only to that of natives at destination, but to that of natives in Ecuador and immigrants from other nationalities in Spain. These comparisons suggest that the better health at birth of children born to immigrants from Ecuador partly responds to the selection of healthier women into migration. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

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  • Lídia Farré, 2016. "New evidence on the healthy immigrant effect," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 365-394, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:29:y:2016:i:2:p:365-394
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-015-0578-4
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    Cited by:

    1. Cristina Bellés‐Obrero & Sergi Jiménez‐Martín & Judit Vall‐Castello, 2016. "Bad Times, Slimmer Children?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(S2), pages 93-112, November.
    2. Aparicio Fenoll, Ainoa, 2022. "Naturalization and Immigrants' Health," IZA Discussion Papers 15659, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Janisch, Laura M., 2017. "Mental health assimilation of Australian immigrants," Ruhr Economic Papers 728, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    4. Yang Song & Wenkai Sun, 2016. "Health Consequences of Rural‐to‐Urban Migration: Evidence from Panel Data in China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(10), pages 1252-1267, October.
    5. Antonio Fidalgo & Alberto Holly & Marco Pecoraro & Philippe Wanner, 2016. "A nonparametric analysis of the healthy immigrant effect," IRENE Working Papers 16-15, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
    6. Sara Rellstab & Marco Pecoraro & Alberto Holly & Philippe Wanner & Karine Renard, 2016. "The Migrant Health Gap and the Role of Labour Market Status: Evidence from Switzerland," IRENE Working Papers 16-14, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Immigration; Selection; Health and birth outcomes; J15; J61; I14;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality

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