IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v157y2022ics0305750x22001553.html

Impacts of applying for international labor migration before migration occurs

Author

Listed:
  • Takasaki, Yoshito

Abstract

The process of international labor migration is often initiated when potential migrant workers apply for jobs offered by recruitment agencies. This paper reports the first study on the consequences of this initial process of applying for labor migration, before migration occurs. In Fiji, a private recruitment agency defrauded approximately 20,000 people of application fees for labor migration to the Middle East. I conducted a rural household survey after people made application decisions and before they became aware of the fraud. I address the endogeneity of job application by using a fraud-specific factor––proximity to the fraudster––as an instrumental variable. Households with a job applicant received less domestic transfers from other households. The reallocation of transfers was a result of the substitution for prospective but not realized international remittances. Thus, the impacts of international labor migration and remittances extend beyond actual migration and remittances studied in the literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Takasaki, Yoshito, 2022. "Impacts of applying for international labor migration before migration occurs," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:157:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x22001553
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105965
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22001553
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105965?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David McKenzie & Dean Yang, 2015. "Evidence on Policies to Increase the Development Impacts of International Migration," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 155-192.
    2. Woodruff, Christopher & Zenteno, Rene, 2007. "Migration networks and microenterprises in Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 509-528, March.
    3. Richard H. Adams, Jr.,John Page, 2003. "Å ‘ű•Ä¸­Å›½Å®¶Çš„Å›½É™…ǧ»Æ°‘À Ʊ‡Æ¬¾Å’Œè´«Å›°," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3179, The World Bank.
    4. John Gibson & David McKenzie & Steven Stillman, 2011. "The Impacts of International Migration on Remaining Household Members: Omnibus Results from a Migration Lottery Program," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1297-1318, November.
    5. Richard Adams, 2011. "Evaluating the Economic Impact of International Remittances On Developing Countries Using Household Surveys: A Literature Review," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(6), pages 809-828.
    6. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    7. Yoshito Takasaki, 2011. "Groups, Networks and Hierarchy in Household Private Transfers: Evidence from Fiji," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 97-130.
    8. Cox, Donald & Fafchamps, Marcel, 2008. "Extended Family and Kinship Networks: Economic Insights and Evolutionary Directions," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 58, pages 3711-3784, Elsevier.
    9. Imbens, Guido W & Angrist, Joshua D, 1994. "Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 467-475, March.
    10. Martin, Philip, 2017. "Merchants of Labor: Recruiters and International Labor Migration," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198808022.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. David McKenzie & John Gibson & Steven Stillman, 2010. "How Important Is Selection? Experimental vs. Non-Experimental Measures of the Income Gains from Migration," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(4), pages 913-945, June.
    14. LaLonde, Robert J, 1986. "Evaluating the Econometric Evaluations of Training Programs with Experimental Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 604-620, September.
    15. Hanson, Gordon H., 2010. "International Migration and the Developing World," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4363-4414, Elsevier.
    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. Md Nazirul Islam Sarker & Md Abdus Salam & R. B. Radin Firdaus, 2024. "Do female labor‐migrated households have lower productivity? Empirical evidence from rural rice farms in Bangladesh," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), March.

    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. Michael Clemens & Erwin Tiongson, 2012. "Split Decisions: Family finance when a policy discontinuity allocates overseas work," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 1234, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    2. David McKenzie & Hillel Rapoport, 2011. "Can migration reduce educational attainment? Evidence from Mexico," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(4), pages 1331-1358, October.
    3. Cynthia Kinnan & Shing-Yi Wang & Yongxiang Wang, 2015. "Relaxing Migration Constraints for Rural Households," NBER Working Papers 21314, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Travis Baseler, 2025. "Migration Spillovers Within Families: Evidence from Thailand," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 55, January.
    5. Yuyu Chen & Ginger Zhe Jin & Yang Yue, 2024. "Peer Migration in China," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 86(2), pages 257-313, April.
    6. Murard, Elie, 2019. "The Impact of Migration on Family Left Behind: Estimation in Presence of Intra-Household Selection of Migrants," IZA Discussion Papers 12094, IZA Network @ LISER.
    7. Steinmayr, Andreas, 2014. "When a random sample is not random: Bounds on the effect of migration on household members left behind," Kiel Working Papers 1975, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
    8. Murard, Elie, 2016. "Consumption and Leisure: The Welfare Impact of Migration on Family Left Behind," IZA Discussion Papers 10305, IZA Network @ LISER.
    9. David McKenzie, 2024. "Fears and Tears: Should More People Be Moving within and from Developing Countries, and What Stops this Movement?," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 39(1), pages 75-96.
    10. 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.
    11. John Gibson & David McKenzie & Steven Stillman, 2011. "The Impacts of International Migration on Remaining Household Members: Omnibus Results from a Migration Lottery Program," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1297-1318, November.
    12. repec:wbk:wbrwps:10250 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Giambra, Samuele & McKenzie, David, 2021. "Self-employment and migration," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    14. Marie Albertine Djuikom, 2018. "Incentives to labour migration and agricultural productivity: The Bayesian perspective," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-45, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Ernesto López-Córdova, 2005. "Globalization, Migration, and Development: The Role of Mexican Migrant Remittances," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2005), pages 217-248.
    16. 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.
    17. Gröger, André, 2021. "Easy come, easy go? Economic shocks, labor migration and the family left behind," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    18. Docquier, Frederic & Rapoport, Hillel, 2004. "Skilled migration: the perspective of developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3382, The World Bank.
    19. Tiwari, Sailesh & Bhattarai, Keshav, 2011. "Migration, remittances and forests : disentangling the impact of population and economic growth on forests," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5907, The World Bank.
    20. Calogero Carletto & Jennica Larrison & Çaglar Özden, 2014. "Informing migration policies: a data primer," Chapters, in: Robert E.B. Lucas (ed.), International Handbook on Migration and Economic Development, chapter 2, pages 9-41, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    21. Julia K. Brown & Tetyana V. Zelenska & Mushfiq A. Mobarak, 2013. "Barriers to Adoption of Products and Technologies that Aid Risk Management in Developing Countries," World Bank Publications - Reports 16365, The World Bank Group.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:wdevel:v:157:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x22001553. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    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.