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Can Parental Migration Reduce Petty Corruption in Education?

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  • Lisa Sofie Höckel
  • Manuel Santos Silva
  • Tobias Stöhr

Abstract

The income generated from parental migration can increase funds available for children’s education. In countries where informal payments to teachers are common migration could therefore increase petty corruption in education. To test this hypothesis, we investigate the effect of migration on educational inputs. We use an instrumental variables approach on survey data and matched administrative records from the World Bank’s Open Budget Initiative (BOOST) from Moldova, one of the countries with the highest emigration rates. Contrary to the positive income effect, we find that the strongest migration-related response in private education expenditure is a substantial decrease in informal payments to public school teachers. Any positive income effect due to migration must hence be overcompensated by some payment-reducing effects. We discuss a number of potential explanations at the family level, school level or community level. We furthermore rule out several of these explanations and highlight possible interpretations for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Lisa Sofie Höckel & Manuel Santos Silva & Tobias Stöhr, 2018. "Can Parental Migration Reduce Petty Corruption in Education?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 32(1), pages 109-126.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:wbecrv:v:32:y:2018:i:1:p:109-126.
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    Cited by:

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    3. Artjoms Ivlevs & Roswitha M. King, 2017. "Does emigration reduce corruption?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 171(3), pages 389-408, June.
    4. Konte, Maty & Ndubuisi, Gideon, 2022. "Remittance dependence, support for taxation and quality of public services in Africa," MERIT Working Papers 2022-019, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    migration; emigration; corruption; education spending; social remittances;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation

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