IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/diw/diwwpp/dp1433.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Low-Skilled Labor Migration in Tajikistan: Determinants and Effects on Expenditure Patterns

Author

Listed:
  • Kristina Meier

Abstract

It is often assumed that international labor migration from Tajikistan, while having no noticeable effects on investment (usually defined as medium and long-term consumption, such as education, or investment into housing or business), on average leads to an increase in short-term consumption, mostly food. In this paper, a simple household-level model determining the migration decision is developed and tested empirically. In a second step, the effect of low-skilled labor migration on household expenditure shares is analyzed using 2SLS. While only weak effects of migration measured by a simple dummy are visible, repeating the analysis using the length of the migration spell instead, as well as its squared term, reveals that labor migration apparently takes a while to "kick in" and become profitable to those remaining at home. The observed long-term effects on household consumption patterns, albeit being rather small, actually speak in favour of investment of remittances, with the respective shares increasing over time, while the budget share spent on food slowly decreases.

Suggested Citation

  • Kristina Meier, 2014. "Low-Skilled Labor Migration in Tajikistan: Determinants and Effects on Expenditure Patterns," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1433, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1433
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.492895.de/dp1433.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dilip Ratha & Sanket Mohapatra & Zhimei Xu, 2008. "Outlook for Remittance Flows 2008-2010 : Growth Expected to Moderate Significantly, But Flows to Remain Resilient," World Bank Publications - Reports 11008, The World Bank Group.
    2. Clemént, Matthieu, 2011. "Remittances and Household Expenditure Patterns in Tajikistan: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis," Asian Development Review, Asian Development Bank, vol. 28(2), pages 58-87.
    3. Funkhouser, Edward, 1992. "Migration from Nicaragua: some recent evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(8), pages 1209-1218, August.
    4. Bauer, Thomas K. & Epstein, Gil S. & Gang, Ira N., 2002. "Herd Effects or Migration Networks? The Location Choice of Mexican Immigrants in the U.S," IZA Discussion Papers 551, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Matthieu Clément, 2011. "Remittances and household expenditure patterns in Tajikistant: a propensity score matching analysis," Post-Print hal-00652410, HAL.
    6. I-Ling Shen & Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport, 2010. "Remittances and inequality: a dynamic migration model," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(2), pages 197-220, June.
    7. Patricia Justino & Olga Shemyakina, 2012. "Remittances and labor supply in post-conflict Tajikistan," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-28, December.
    8. Gupta, Sanjeev & Pattillo, Catherine A. & Wagh, Smita, 2009. "Effect of Remittances on Poverty and Financial Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 104-115, January.
    9. Adams, Richard Jr. & Page, John, 2005. "Do international migration and remittances reduce poverty in developing countries?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1645-1669, October.
    10. David McKenzie & Hillel Rapoport, 2010. "Self-Selection Patterns in Mexico-U.S. Migration: The Role of Migration Networks," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 811-821, November.
    11. Kumo, Kazuhiro & 雲, 和広 & クモ, カズヒロ & Horie, Norio & Ryazantsev, Sergei V., 2011. "Sociology, Economics and Politics of Central Asian Migrants in Russia," Discussion Paper Series b39, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    12. Adams, Richard H, Jr, 1989. "Worker Remittances and Inequality in Rural Egypt," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(1), pages 45-71, October.
    13. Mckenzie, David & Rapoport, Hillel, 2007. "Network effects and the dynamics of migration and inequality: Theory and evidence from Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 1-24, September.
    14. Matthieu Clément, 2011. "Remittances and household expenditure patterns in Tajikistan: A propensity score matching analysis," Post-Print hal-00652395, HAL.
    15. Taylor, J. Edward, 1992. "Remittances and inequality reconsidered: Direct, indirect, and intertemporal effects," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 187-208, April.
    16. Matthieu Clément, 2011. "Remittances and household expenditure patterns in Tajikistan: a propensity score matching analysis," Post-Print hal-00652405, HAL.
    17. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Susan Pozo, 2006. "Migration, Remittances, and Male and Female Employment Patterns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 222-226, May.
    18. Carrington, William J & Detragiache, Enrica & Vishwanath, Tara, 1996. "Migration with Endogenous Moving Costs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 909-930, September.
    19. Taylor, J. Edward & Mora, Jorge, 2006. "Does migration reshape expenditures in rural households? Evidence from Mexico," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3842, The World Bank.
    20. Barham, Bradford & Boucher, Stephen, 1998. "Migration, remittances, and inequality: estimating the net effects of migration on income distribution," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 307-331, April.
    21. Acosta, Pablo & Calderon, Cesar & Fajnzylber, Pablo & Lopez, Humberto, 2008. "What is the Impact of International Remittances on Poverty and Inequality in Latin America?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 89-114, January.
    22. Deaton, Angus S & Muellbauer, John, 1980. "An Almost Ideal Demand System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 312-326, June.
    23. Cynthia Buckley & Erin Trouth Hofmann, 2012. "Are Remittances an Effective Mechanism for Development? Evidence from Tajikistan, 1999--2007," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(8), pages 1121-1138, February.
    24. Lipton, Michael, 1980. "Migration from rural areas of poor countries: The impact on rural productivity and income distribution," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 1-24, January.
    25. Matthieu Clément, 2011. "Remittances and household expenditure patterns in Tajikistan: A propensity score matching analysis," Post-Print hal-00807257, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Barbara Dietz & Kseniia Gatskova & Artjoms Ivlevs, 2015. "Emigration, Remittances and the Education of Children Staying Behind: Evidence from Tajikistan," Working Papers 354, Leibniz Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung (Institute for East and Southeast European Studies).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marjan Petreski & Nikica Mojsoska-Blazevski & Maja Ristovska & Edi Smokvarski, 2014. "Youth Self-Employment in Households Receiving Remittances in Macedonia," Working Papers PMMA 2014-08, PEP-PMMA.
    2. Muhammad Shahbaz & Ijaz Rehman & Nurul Mahdzan, 2014. "Linkages between income inequality, international remittances and economic growth in Pakistan," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 1511-1535, May.
    3. Anghel, Remus Gabriel & Piracha, Matloob & Randazzo, Teresa, 2015. "Migrants' Remittances: Channelling Globalization," IZA Discussion Papers 9516, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Kashif Imran & Evelyn S. Devadason & Cheong Kee Cheok, 2019. "Developmental Impacts of Remittances on Migrant-Sending Households: Micro-Level Evidence from Punjab, Pakistan," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 14(3), pages 338-366, December.
    5. Isaac Dadson & Ryuta Ray Kato, 2016. "Remittances and the Redistributive Policy in Ghana: A Computable General Equilibrium Approach," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 6, pages 28-44, May.
    6. Adenutsi, Deodat E., 2011. "Do remittances alleviate poverty and income inequality in poor countries? Empirical evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 37130, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Vacaflores, Diego E., 2018. "Are remittances helping lower poverty and inequality levels in Latin America?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 254-265.
    8. David Margolis & Luis Miotti & El Mouhoub Mouhoud & Joël Oudinet, 2013. ""To Have and Have Not": Migration, Remittances, Poverty and Inequality in Algeria," CEPN Working Papers hal-00907035, HAL.
    9. Isaac Dadson & Ryuta Ray Kato, 2015. "Remittances and the Redistributive Tax Policy in Ghana: A Computable General Equilibrium Approach," Working Papers EMS_2015_05, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    10. Valerie Koechlin & Gianmarco Leon, 2007. "International Remittances and Income Inequality: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 123-141.
    11. Karim Khan & Muhammad Jehangir Khan & Abid Hussain, 2021. "Remittances and Healthcare Expenditures: Evidence from Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 175-200.
    12. Mckenzie, David & Rapoport, Hillel, 2007. "Network effects and the dynamics of migration and inequality: Theory and evidence from Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 1-24, September.
    13. Rapoport, Hillel & Docquier, Frederic, 2006. "The Economics of Migrants' Remittances," Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, in: S. Kolm & Jean Mercier Ythier (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 17, pages 1135-1198, Elsevier.
    14. Isaac Dadson & Ryuta Ray Kato, 2015. "Remittances and the Brain Drain in Ghana: A Computable General Equilibrium Approach," Working Papers EMS_2015_04, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    15. Iuliia Kuntsevych, 2017. "Remittances, Spending and Political Instability in Ukraine," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp583, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    16. Majeed, Muhammad Tariq, 2015. "Distributional Consequences of Remittances: Evidence from Sixty-Five Developing Countries," MPRA Paper 88673, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2016.
    17. Adelowokan, Oluwaseyi & Adesoye, Adesola & Akpa, Emeka & Maku, Olukayode, 2020. "Remittances, Foreign Aid and Private Consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A System GMM Estimation," MPRA Paper 98362, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Michael Lokshin & Mikhail Bontch‐Osmolovski & Elena Glinskaya, 2010. "Work‐Related Migration and Poverty Reduction in Nepal," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 323-332, May.
    19. Iuliia Kuntsevych, 2017. "Remittances in Ukraine Using Household Data," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp590, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    20. I-Ling Shen & Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport, 2010. "Remittances and inequality: a dynamic migration model," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(2), pages 197-220, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    labor migration; remittances; consumption shares; Tajikistan;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1433. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bibliothek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/diwbede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.