IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/ubzefd/342297.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Temporary migration decisions and effects on household income and diets in rural Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Rana, Sohel
  • Faye, Amy
  • Qaim, Matin

Abstract

Temporary migration is a widely observed phenomenon among poor rural households, mostly related to agricultural seasonality. However, household preferences for temporary migration in comparison to longer-term migration, and the differential effects of these migrations on household livelihoods are not yet well understood. Here, we use survey data collected in northern rural Bangladesh to analyze determinants of households’ choice between temporary and longer-term migration, and their comparative effects on various livelihood indicators, with a particular focus on agricultural lean periods. Issues of selection bias and endogeneity are addressed with Heckman selection models and instrumental variables. We show that temporary migration is more common than longer-term migration, partly determined by family demographic and farm-labor constraints. Although longer-term migration has larger positive effects on household income, temporary migration has larger positive effects on food consumption and dietary quality during lean periods. These results suggest that temporary migration is an important mechanism for the rural poor to smooth consumption and deserves more attention by researchers and policy-makers.

Suggested Citation

  • Rana, Sohel & Faye, Amy & Qaim, Matin, 2024. "Temporary migration decisions and effects on household income and diets in rural Bangladesh," Discussion Papers 342297, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ubzefd:342297
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.342297
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/342297/files/344_Temporary%20migration%20decisions%20and%20effects%20on%20household%20income%20and%20diets%20in%20rural%20Bangladesh.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.342297?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gharad Bryan & Shyamal Chowdhury & Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, 2014. "Underinvestment in a Profitable Technology: The Case of Seasonal Migration in Bangladesh," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(5), pages 1671-1748, September.
    2. Dubin, Jeffrey A & McFadden, Daniel L, 1984. "An Econometric Analysis of Residential Electric Appliance Holdings and Consumption," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(2), pages 345-362, March.
    3. Todaro, Michael P, 1969. "A Model for Labor Migration and Urban Unemployment in Less Developed Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(1), pages 138-148, March.
    4. Alan de Brauw & Tomoko Harigaya, 2007. "Seasonal Migration and Improving Living Standards in Vietnam," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(2), pages 430-447.
    5. Abu S. Shonchoy, 2015. "Seasonal Migration and Microcredit During Agricultural Lean Seasons: Evidence from Northwest Bangladesh," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 53(1), pages 1-26, March.
    6. Edmundo Murrugarra & Jennica Larrison & Marcin Sasin, 2011. "Migration and Poverty : Toward Better Opportunities for the Poor," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2535.
    7. Vaitla, Bapu & Coates, Jennifer & Glaeser, Laura & Hillbruner, Christopher & Biswal, Preetish & Maxwell, Daniel, 2017. "The measurement of household food security: Correlation and latent variable analysis of alternative indicators in a large multi-country dataset," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 193-205.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kurosaki, Takashi, 2012. "Urban Transportation Infrastructure and Poverty Reduction: Delhi Metro's Impact on the Cycle Rickshaw Rental Market," PRIMCED Discussion Paper Series 24, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    2. Eva-Maria Egger & Julie Litchfield, 2019. "Following in their footsteps: an analysis of the impact of successive migration on rural household welfare in Ghana," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Haoyang Lyu & Zengchuan Dong & Mahendran Roobavannan & Jaya Kandasamy & Saket Pande, 2019. "Rural unemployment pushes migrants to urban areas in Jiangsu Province, China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Ravi Kanbur & Luc Christiaensen & Joachim De Weerdt, 2019. "Where to create jobs to reduce poverty: cities or towns?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 543-564, December.
    5. Sichko, Christopher, 2024. "Migrant selection and sorting during the Great American Drought," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    6. Francisco Costa & François Gerard, 2021. "Hysteresis and the Welfare Effect of Corrective Policies: Theory and Evidence from an Energy-Saving Program," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(6), pages 1705-1743.
    7. Mueller, Valerie & Kovarik, Chiara & Sproule, Kathryn & Quisumbing, Agnes R., 2015. "Migration, gender, and farming systems in Asia: Evidence, data, and knowledge gaps:," IFPRI discussion papers 1458, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Michael A. Clemens & Hannah M. Postel, 2018. "Deterring Emigration with Foreign Aid: An Overview of Evidence from Low‐Income Countries," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 44(4), pages 667-693, December.
    9. De Weerdt,Joachim & Christiaensen,Luc & Kanbur,Ravi, 2021. "When Distance Drives Destination, Towns Can Stimulate Development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9622, The World Bank.
    10. Kanbur, Ravi & Christiaensen, Luc & De Weerdt, Joachim, 2017. "Cities, Towns, and Poverty: Migration Equilibrium and Income Distribution in a Todaro-type Model with Multiple Destinations," CEPR Discussion Papers 11994, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Ubaid Ali & Mazhar Mughal & Lionel de Boisdeffre, 2023. "Migrant remittances, agriculture investment and cropping patterns," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 899-920, September.
    12. Fassil Eshetu & Jema Haji & Mengistu Ketema & Abule Mehare, 2023. "Impact of Rural Out-Migration on Vulnerability to Rural Multidimensional Poverty in Southern Ethiopia," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1175-1209, September.
    13. Sanhita Sucharita, 2020. "Socio-economic Determinants of Temporary Labour Migration in Western Jharkhand, India," Millennial Asia, , vol. 11(2), pages 226-251, August.
    14. Nguyen, Linh, 2020. "Land Rights and Migration in Vietnam," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304192, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Oded Stark & Marcin Jakubek, 2022. "Can the evolution of joint savings agreements counter the effect of higher costs of migration on its intensity?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 757-796, July.
    16. Melanie Morten, 2016. "Temporary Migration and Endogenous Risk Sharing in Village India," NBER Working Papers 22159, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Hien, Nguyen Thi Thu, 2019. "Consequences of urban migration of adult children for the elderly left-behind in rural Vietnam," OSF Preprints zxyf8, Center for Open Science.
    18. Eva-Maria Egger & Julie Litchfield, 2019. "Following in their footsteps: an analysis of the impact of successive migration on rural household welfare in Ghana," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-22, December.
    19. repec:lic:licosd:42321 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Arjan de Haan, 2006. "Migration in the Development Studies Literature: Has It Come Out of Its Marginality?," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-19, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    21. Selod, Harris & Shilpi, Forhad, 2021. "Rural-urban migration in developing countries: Lessons from the literature," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural and Food Policy; Food Security and Poverty; Labor and Human Capital;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:ubzefd:342297. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zefbnde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.