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The probability of return migration, migrants' work effort, and migrants' performance
Journal of Development Economics
|April 1, 1991
Summary
Migrants may earn more due to higher work effort, driven by the incentive of returning home. This explains why migrants can outperform native-born workers, even with similar skills.
Area of Science:
- Economics
- Sociology
- Labor Studies
Background:
- Migrant earnings often differ from native-born populations.
- Previous studies attributed these differences to characteristics like skills or education.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of incentives, specifically return migration probability, in explaining earnings differentials.
- To determine if higher migrant work effort can account for observed performance differences.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical analysis of labor economics models.
- Empirical examination of factors influencing migrant work effort.
Main Results:
- A positive probability of return migration significantly increases migrant work effort.
- Migrant work effort exceeds that of comparable native-born workers under these conditions.
- This increased effort can lead to higher earnings and outperform native workers, irrespective of skill homogeneity.
Conclusions:
- Incentives, particularly return migration, are a key driver of migrant economic performance.
- Differences in earnings between migrants and natives may stem from behavioral responses to incentives, not just inherent characteristics.
- This highlights the importance of considering migrant motivations in economic and labor market analyses.
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