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Migration, violence and welfare programmes in rural Colombia

Author

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  • Alice Mesnard

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and City University London)

Abstract

This paper studies migration decisions of very poor households in an environment with a high level of violence. By matching detailed retrospective data on violence levels in Colombian rural municipalities with a household survey collected for the evaluation of the "Familias en Acción" welfare programme, the empirical analysis takes into account possible selection problems of the sample and the key issue of endogeneity of violence. The main results show that high levels of violence encourage households to leave their municipality of residence but that welfare programmes may mitigate these flows, provided that the incidence of violence is not unduly high. This is consistent with the fact that the households under study are liquidity constrained: when violence is high, cash transfers may enable them to leave their municipality of residence, whereas, in more normal circumstances, receiving cash transfers increases the benefits to stay where they are registered. Further evidence using household shocks and wealth confirm that liquidity constraints play a large role in explaining such heterogeneous impacts of the programme along violence levels. Other important determinants of migration are the type of property rights and the health insurance rural households can benefit from.

Suggested Citation

  • Alice Mesnard, 2009. "Migration, violence and welfare programmes in rural Colombia," IFS Working Papers W09/19, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:09/19
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    File URL: http://www.ifs.org.uk/wps/wp0919.pdf
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Carlos Bozzoli & Tilman Brück & Tony Muhumuza, 2012. "Movers or Stayers? Understanding the Drivers of IDP Camp Decongestion during Post-Conflict Recovery in Uganda," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1197, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    2. Guido Friebel & Juan Gallego & Mariapia Mendola, 2013. "Xenophobic attacks, migration intentions, and networks: evidence from the South of Africa," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(2), pages 555-591, April.
    3. Malerba, Daniele, 2020. "Poverty alleviation and local environmental degradation: An empirical analysis in Colombia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    4. Yashodhan Ghorpade, 2012. "Coping Strategies in Natural Disasters and under Conflict: A Review of Household Responses and Notes for Public Policy," HiCN Working Papers 136, Households in Conflict Network.
    5. Carlos Bozzoli & Tilman Brueck & Tony Muhumuza, 2016. "Activity Choices Of Internally Displaced Persons And Returnees: Quantitative Survey Evidence From Post-War Northern Uganda," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 329-347, October.
    6. Mesnard, Alice & Fitzsimons, Emla, 2012. "How children?s schooling and work is affected when their father leaves permanently: Evidence from Colombia," CEPR Discussion Papers 8886, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Wald, Nina & Bozzoli, Carlos, 2011. "Bullet Proof? Program Evaluation in Conflict Areas: Evidence from Rural Colombia," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Berlin 2011 80, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    8. Emla Fitzsimons & Alice Mesnard, 2012. "How children's schooling and work are affected when their father leaves permanently: evidence from Colombia," IFS Working Papers W12/04, Institute for Fiscal Studies.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    migration; welfare programme; violence; displacement; Colombia;
    All these keywords.

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