| While much research has been devoted to the impact of immigration on receiving countries such as the United States, little attention has been paid to the effects of out-migration on sending communities. This dissertation explores precisely that issue, examining the effects of U.S. migration on children and parents remaining in Mexico. Two chapters consider the effects of a father's migration to the U.S. on his children, exploring both current effects on schooling and work outcomes as well as long-term educational attainment. Theoretically, the overall effect is ambiguous because while remittances may allow a child to obtain more schooling and work less, they may be outweighed by the effects of a father's absence from the home and knowledge that Mexican education is not well-rewarded in the U.S. In the immediate period, the results mainly point to a positive effect of migration on child study hours and participation and a possible decrease in domestic work hours for 12-15 year-old girls. In the long-run, the evidence suggests that pushing a father's U.S. migration earlier in a child's life, particularly before the child is born, would lead to an increase in child educational attainment of about 2 years relative to delaying migration until after the child has turned 25. These results are consistent with a story in which U.S. migration relaxes the household budget constraint and enables families to save for their children's educations. Finally, I examine how children provide for their elderly parents in terms of both time and money and consider how migration alters the division of responsibility among siblings because the migrant child is no longer physically able to care for the parent but may be able to provide more financially. I find evidence that siblings' financial contributions function as strategic complements while their time contributions operate as strategic substitutes, suggesting that giving may be based on both strategic bequest and public good motivations. In addition, the results from a simulation generating an exogenous switch in a child's migrant status show lower average time and financial contributions for his elderly parents. |
