Migration, Economic Crisis and Child Growth in Rural Guatemala : Insights from the Great Recession
Migration has been demonstrated by various studies to be closely linked to improvements in individual- and household-level outcomes. Rather than examining the effects of migration, this paper explores whether an economic shock in United States nega...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/932541627310242741/Migration-Economic-Crisis-and-Child-Growth-in-Rural-Guatemala-Insights-from-the-Great-Recession http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36034 |
| Summary: | Migration has been demonstrated by
various studies to be closely linked to improvements in
individual- and household-level outcomes. Rather than
examining the effects of migration, this paper explores
whether an economic shock in United States negatively
affected migrant households in rural Guatemala. Treating the
Great Recession as a natural experiment affecting migrant
and non-migrant households differently, the paper puts the
spotlight on the effect on child anthropometry, including
longer-term indicators of height-for-age z-scores. Panel
data on children and multiple children in households enable
double- and triple-difference estimation. In relative terms,
migrant households fared far worse than non-migrant
households over the period. In particular, large advantages
in child anthropometric status for the youngest children in
migrant households in 2008, just prior to the crisis, were
substantially diminished four years later. The findings
underscore the possible fragility of the benefits of
migration, particularly in the face of a substantial
economic shock, and point to the potential importance of
deepening social safety nets. |
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