American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Returns to International Migration: Evidence from a Bangladesh-Malaysia Visa Lottery
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 15,
no. 4, October 2023
(pp. 353–88)
Abstract
South Asians traveling to richer Asian nations is the world's largest migration corridor. We track down applicants to a government lottery that randomly allocated visas to Bangladeshis for temporary labor contracts in Malaysia, five years later. Most lottery winners migrate, and migrants' earnings triple. Their remittance raises their family's standard of living in Bangladesh. The migrant's absence pauses marriage and childbirth and shifts decision-making power toward females. Migration removes enterprising individuals, lowering household entrepreneurship, but does not crowd out other family members' labor supply. A deferred migration offer never materialized for a subgroup. Their premigration investments in skills generate no returns in the domestic market.Citation
Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq, Iffath Sharif, and Maheshwor Shrestha. 2023. "Returns to International Migration: Evidence from a Bangladesh-Malaysia Visa Lottery." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 15 (4): 353–88. DOI: 10.1257/app.20220258Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- F22 International Migration
- F24 Remittances
- I31 General Welfare; Well-Being
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- J31 Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
- J82 Labor Standards: Labor Force Composition
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration