Three essays on labor migration

This dissertation consists of three chapters. Chapter one is to study the spell of temporary migration in China using a semi-parametric duration model. Empirical analyses are based on a national household survey from the Chinese Household Income Project 1995. The estimated hazard rates generally increase with the spell of migration, suggesting that the longer migrants stay away from home, the more likely they return home. Not only are single, well-educated migrants more likely to migrate, they also stay longer away from home. Although the majority of migrants are male, females tend to stay longer away from home. Further examination shows only single females have longer migration duration. Although household heads are more likely to migrate, they also return home earlier. In order to explain those findings, this chapter focuses on three interactive important aspects: China's ambiguous migration policy, outdated land policy and Chinese traditional family values. Chapter two is to apply a three-stage least squares (3SLS) and non-linear two-stage least squares (2NSLS) to study the impacts of migration on the sending community. Migrant families greatly benefit from migration in regard to household durable consumption and household annual income. Rural-urban migration has no significant effects on agricultural investment. Because land is allocated into small plots, the marginal product of either labor or capital in farming is nearly zero. That may explain why migrant families show no interest in agricultural investment even if they are better off in annual household income. Chapter three is to conduct a preliminary investigation of the link between migration and the informal credit market in developing countries. This is the first research on the link. Using the 1998 Nicaragua Living Standards Measurement Survey, this chapter shows that migrants have a higher probability of participating in the informal credit market than non-migrants. The positive link between migration and the informal credit market furthermore shows that the benefits from migration could then be extended from migrant families to non-migrant families through the informal financial intermediary. Migration could then have a far more reaching impact on the source community in developing countries than we may have expected.