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The Impact of Family Size and Sibling Structure on the Great Mexico-U.S. Migration

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  • Bratti, Massimiliano
  • Fiore, Simona
  • Mendola, Mariapia

Abstract

We investigate how fertility and demographic factors affect migration at the household level by assessing the causal effects of sibship size and structure on offspring's international migration. We use a rich demographic survey on the population of Mexico and exploit presumably exogenous variation in family size induced by biological fertility and infertility shocks. We further exploit cross-sibling differences to identify birth order, sibling-sex, and sibling-age composition effects on migration. We find that large families per se do not boost offspring out-migration. Yet, the likelihood of migrating is not equally distributed within a household, but is higher for sons and decreases sharply with birth order. The female migration disadvantage also varies with sibling composition by age and gender.

Suggested Citation

  • Bratti, Massimiliano & Fiore, Simona & Mendola, Mariapia, 2019. "The Impact of Family Size and Sibling Structure on the Great Mexico-U.S. Migration," GLO Discussion Paper Series 392, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:392
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    3. Bertoli, Simone & Gautrain, Elsa & Murard, Elie, 2020. "Left Behind, but Not Alone: Changes in Living Arrangements and the Effects of Migration and Remittances in Mexico," IZA Discussion Papers 13917, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Olivier Bargain & Jordan Loper & Roberta Ziparo, 2024. "Women's Empowerment and Husband's Migration: Evidence from Indonesia," CERDI Working papers hal-04409953, HAL.
    5. Cuong Nguyen & Anh Tran, 2020. "Are children an incentive or a disincentive for migration? Evidence from Vietnam," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3), pages 467-485, July.
    6. Jan Priebe, 2020. "Quasi-experimental evidence for the causal link between fertility and subjective well-being," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 839-882, July.
    7. Heidland, Tobias & Jannsen, Nils & Groll, Dominik & Kalweit, René & Boockmann, Bernhard, 2021. "Analyse und Prognose von Migrationsbewegungen," Kieler Beiträge zur Wirtschaftspolitik 34, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    8. Yu Bai & Yanjun Li & Pak Hung Lam, 2023. "Quantity-quality trade-off in Northeast China during the Qing dynasty," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1657-1694, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    International Migration; Mexico; Family Size; Sibling Structure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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