IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/9766.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

International Migration, Remittances, and Schooling: Evidence from El Salvador

Author

Listed:
  • Alejandra Cox Edwards
  • Manuelita Ureta

Abstract

We examine the effect of remittances from abroad on households' schooling decisions using data for El Salvador. Following the massive war-related emigration of the 1980's, remittances became a significant source of household income throughout the 1990's. We use the Cox proportional hazard model to examine the determinants of school attendance. Measuring income from a source that is uncorrelated with parental schooling remittances , we find that remittances have a large, significant effect on school retention. We estimate that while household income net of remittances has a small, though significant, impact on the hazard of leaving school in rural and urban areas, remittances have a much larger impact on the hazard of leaving school. In urban areas, the effect of remittances is, at its smallest, 10 times the size of the effect of other income. In rural areas, the effect of remittances is about 2.6 times that of other income. Our finding is of interest in that it suggests that subsidizing school attendance, particularly in poor areas, may have a large impact on school attendance and retention, even if parents have low levels of schooling.

Suggested Citation

  • Alejandra Cox Edwards & Manuelita Ureta, 2003. "International Migration, Remittances, and Schooling: Evidence from El Salvador," NBER Working Papers 9766, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9766
    Note: ED LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w9766.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Al-Samarrai, Samer & Peasgood, Tessa, 1998. "Educational attainments and household characteristics in Tanzania," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 395-417, October.
    2. Ms. Gabriela Inchauste, 2000. "Educational Choices and Educational Constraints: Evidence From Bolivia," IMF Working Papers 2000/042, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Lee A. Lillard & Robert J. Willis, 1994. "Intergenerational Educational Mobility: Effects of Family and State in Malaysia," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(4), pages 1126-1166.
    4. William L. Parish & Robert J. Willis, 1993. "Daughters, Education, and Family Budgets Taiwan Experiences," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(4), pages 863-898.
    5. Chuang, Hwei-Lin, 1997. "High school youths' dropout and re-enrollment behavior," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 171-186, April.
    6. Behrman, Jere R & Wolfe, Barbara L, 1984. "The Socioeconomic Impact of Schooling in a Developing Country," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(2), pages 296-303, May.
    7. Jimenez, Emmanuel & Sawada, Yasuyuki, 1999. "Do Community-Managed Schools Work? An Evaluation of El Salvador's EDUCO Program," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 13(3), pages 415-441, September.
    8. Donald O. Parsons, 1975. "Intergenerational Wealth Transfers and the Educational Decisions of Male Youth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 89(4), pages 603-617.
    9. Robert Haveman & Barbara Wolfe, 1995. "The Determinants of Children's Attainments: A Review of Methods and Findings," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1829-1878, December.
    10. Wolfe, Barbara L. & Behrman, Jere R., 1984. "Who is schooled in developing countries? The roles of income, parental schooling, sex, residence and family size," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 231-245, June.
    11. Schultz, T. Paul, 1988. "Education investments and returns," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 13, pages 543-630, Elsevier.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Edwards, Alejandra Cox & Ureta, Manuelita, 2003. "International migration, remittances, and schooling: evidence from El Salvador," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 429-461, December.
    2. W. Nabiddo & B.L. Yawe & F. Wasswa, 2022. "Education attainment and household education expenditure in Uganda: An empirical investigation," Journal of Economic Policy and Management Issues, JEPMI, vol. 1(1), pages 21-49.
    3. Lincove, Jane Arnold, 2015. "Improving Identification of Demand-Side Obstacles to Schooling: Findings from Revealed and Stated Preference Models in Two SSA Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 69-83.
    4. Subha Mani & John Hoddinott & John Strauss, 2009. "Determinants of Schooling Outcomes: Empirical Evidence from Rural Ethiopia," Fordham Economics Discussion Paper Series dp2009-03, Fordham University, Department of Economics.
    5. Jere R. Behrman & Andrew D. Foster & Mark R. Rosenzweig & Prem Vashishtha, 1999. "Women's Schooling, Home Teaching, and Economic Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(4), pages 682-714, August.
    6. Holmes, Jessica, 1999. "Measuring the Determinants of School Completion in Pakistan: Analysis of Censoring and Selection Bias," Center Discussion Papers 28530, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    7. Tansel, Aysit, 2002. "Determinants of school attainment of boys and girls in Turkey: individual, household and community factors," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 455-470, October.
    8. Liu, Jin-Tan & Hammitt, James K. & Jeng Lin, Chyongchiou, 1999. "Family background and returns to schooling in Taiwan," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 113-125, February.
    9. Jessica Holmes, 1999. "Measuring the Determinants of School Completion in Pakistan: Analysis of Censoring and Selection Bias," Working Papers 794, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    10. Behrman, Jere R., 2010. "Investment in Education Inputs and Incentives," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4883-4975, Elsevier.
    11. Funkhouser, Edward, 1999. "Cyclical economic conditions and school attendance in Costa Rica," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 31-50, February.
    12. Lincove, Jane Arnold, 2012. "The influence of price on school enrollment under Uganda's policy of free primary education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 799-811.
    13. Bratti, Massimiliano & Mendola, Mariapia, 2014. "Parental health and child schooling," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 94-108.
    14. Orazem, Peter F. & King, Elizabeth M., 2008. "Schooling in Developing Countries: The Roles of Supply, Demand and Government Policy," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 55, pages 3475-3559, Elsevier.
    15. Sophie Hedges & David W. Lawson & Jim Todd & Mark Urassa & Rebecca Sear, 2019. "Sharing the Load: How Do Coresident Children Influence the Allocation of Work and Schooling in Northwestern Tanzania?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(5), pages 1931-1956, October.
    16. Aysit Tansel, 1998. "Determinants of School Attainment of Boys and Girls in Turkey," Working Papers 789, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    17. Ulubasoglu, Mehmet A. & Cardak, Buly A., 2007. "International comparisons of rural-urban educational attainment: Data and determinants," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(7), pages 1828-1857, October.
    18. Mona Said & Fatma El-Hamidi, 2008. "Taking Technical Education Seriously in MENA: Determinants, Labor Market Implications and Policy Lessons," Working Papers 450, Economic Research Forum, revised 09 Jan 2008.
    19. Seife Dendir, 2013. "Children's Endowment, Schooling, and Work in Ethiopia," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-086, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Naghsh Nejad, Maryam, 2013. "Institutionalized Inequality and Brain Drain: An Empirical Study of the Effects of Women's Rights on the Gender Gap in High-Skilled Migration," IZA Discussion Papers 7864, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid

    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:nbr:nberwo:9766. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.