What Does Migration Mean for Children Left Behind? Educational Evidence from Guatemala
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This paper examines how the internal or international migration of an adult household member affects the educational attainment of children who remain behind in the rural highlands of Guatemala. I hypothesize that migration’s net effect on children’s schooling depends on the relative strengths of the positive “remittance effect,” which increases schooling attainment by relieving credit constraints, and the negative “disruption effect,” which affects children’s household responsibilities and lowers children’s own expectations of the returns to schooling, particularly if they expect to migrate themselves. Analysis of a self-collected 2007 household survey with a distinctive set of household control variables reveals that migration’s effect on children’s schooling varies in both sign and magnitude by households’ access to credit and attitudes towards education. The families that benefit most from migration are those with weaker connections to education: those that expect lower returns to education for their children, are headed by mothers with little or no education or their own, and lack access to credit. On the other hand, migration has a negative or net zero effect on children’s schooling in households with stronger connections to education: those that expect medium or high returns to schooling, are headed by mothers with at least three years of education, and that have access to banking and lending services. Though a small sample size plagues this analysis, the results broaden and deepen the scope of the argument that migration is neither purely positive nor purely negative for children, but rather has complex and differential effects on schooling attainment.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 2008 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Warren, Emily |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | De Giorgi, Giacomo |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Economics |
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford Department of Economics |
|---|---|
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
| Related item | |
|---|---|
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/rw986ht5400 |
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Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Warren, Emily. (2008). What Does Migration Mean for Children Left Behind? Educational Evidence from Guatemala. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/rw986ht5400
Collection
Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses
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