The Long-Term Impact of International Migration on Economic Decision-Making : Evidence from a Migration Lottery and Lab-in-the-Field Experiments

This paper studies how migration from a poor to a rich country affects key economic beliefs, preference parameters, and transnational household decision-making efficiency. The setting is the migration of Tongans to New Zealand through a migration l...

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Main Authors: Gibson, John, McKenzie, David, Rohorua, Halahingano, Stillman, Steven
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/10/26836670/long-term-impact-international-migration-economic-decision-making-evidence-migration-lottery-lab-in-the-field-experiments
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25165
id okr-10986-25165
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-251652021-04-23T14:04:29Z The Long-Term Impact of International Migration on Economic Decision-Making : Evidence from a Migration Lottery and Lab-in-the-Field Experiments Gibson, John McKenzie, David Rohorua, Halahingano Stillman, Steven migration economic beliefs preferences household efficiency transnational households remittances This paper studies how migration from a poor to a rich country affects key economic beliefs, preference parameters, and transnational household decision-making efficiency. The setting is the migration of Tongans to New Zealand through a migration lottery program. In a 10-year follow-up survey of individuals applying for this program, the study elicited risk and time preferences and pro-market beliefs. It also linked migrants and potential migrants to a partner household consisting of family members who would stay behind if the migrants moved. Survey participants played lab-in-the-field games designed to measure the degree of intra-family trust and the efficiency of intra-family decision-making. Migration provides a large and permanent positive shock to income, a large change in economic institutions, and a reduction in interactions with partner household members. Despite these changes, the study finds no significant impacts of migration on risk and time preferences, pro-market beliefs, or the decision-making efficiency of transnational households. This stability in the face of such a large and life-changing event lends credence to economic models of migration that treat these determinants of decision-making as time-invariant, and contrasts with recent evidence on preference changes after negative shocks. 2016-10-17T16:26:06Z 2016-10-17T16:26:06Z 2016-10 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/10/26836670/long-term-impact-international-migration-economic-decision-making-evidence-migration-lottery-lab-in-the-field-experiments http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25165 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7848 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper East Asia and Pacific New Zealand
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic migration
economic beliefs
preferences
household efficiency
transnational households
remittances
spellingShingle migration
economic beliefs
preferences
household efficiency
transnational households
remittances
Gibson, John
McKenzie, David
Rohorua, Halahingano
Stillman, Steven
The Long-Term Impact of International Migration on Economic Decision-Making : Evidence from a Migration Lottery and Lab-in-the-Field Experiments
geographic_facet East Asia and Pacific
New Zealand
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7848
description This paper studies how migration from a poor to a rich country affects key economic beliefs, preference parameters, and transnational household decision-making efficiency. The setting is the migration of Tongans to New Zealand through a migration lottery program. In a 10-year follow-up survey of individuals applying for this program, the study elicited risk and time preferences and pro-market beliefs. It also linked migrants and potential migrants to a partner household consisting of family members who would stay behind if the migrants moved. Survey participants played lab-in-the-field games designed to measure the degree of intra-family trust and the efficiency of intra-family decision-making. Migration provides a large and permanent positive shock to income, a large change in economic institutions, and a reduction in interactions with partner household members. Despite these changes, the study finds no significant impacts of migration on risk and time preferences, pro-market beliefs, or the decision-making efficiency of transnational households. This stability in the face of such a large and life-changing event lends credence to economic models of migration that treat these determinants of decision-making as time-invariant, and contrasts with recent evidence on preference changes after negative shocks.
format Working Paper
author Gibson, John
McKenzie, David
Rohorua, Halahingano
Stillman, Steven
author_facet Gibson, John
McKenzie, David
Rohorua, Halahingano
Stillman, Steven
author_sort Gibson, John
title The Long-Term Impact of International Migration on Economic Decision-Making : Evidence from a Migration Lottery and Lab-in-the-Field Experiments
title_short The Long-Term Impact of International Migration on Economic Decision-Making : Evidence from a Migration Lottery and Lab-in-the-Field Experiments
title_full The Long-Term Impact of International Migration on Economic Decision-Making : Evidence from a Migration Lottery and Lab-in-the-Field Experiments
title_fullStr The Long-Term Impact of International Migration on Economic Decision-Making : Evidence from a Migration Lottery and Lab-in-the-Field Experiments
title_full_unstemmed The Long-Term Impact of International Migration on Economic Decision-Making : Evidence from a Migration Lottery and Lab-in-the-Field Experiments
title_sort long-term impact of international migration on economic decision-making : evidence from a migration lottery and lab-in-the-field experiments
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2016
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/10/26836670/long-term-impact-international-migration-economic-decision-making-evidence-migration-lottery-lab-in-the-field-experiments
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25165
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