IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ese/iserwp/2016-13.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Intended vs. unintended consequences of migration restriction policies: evidence from a natural experiment in Indonesia

Author

Listed:
  • Makovec, Mattia
  • Purnamasari, Ririn
  • Sandi, Matteo
  • Savitri, Astrid

Abstract

We study the consequences of a series of migration policies that restricted the migration of Indonesian female domestic workers towards traditional destinations, namely Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. Our difference-in-differences specification exploits the differential impact across Indonesian villages of this unique natural experiment, intended to stop repeated cases of mistreatment of Indonesians working overseas. Our results suggest that the moratoria had negative effects on economic activity and households’ welfare, and worsened labor market conditions, especially for women, in the origin communities. Our results highlight the unintended effects that migration restrictions may have precisely on those they were intended to benefit.

Suggested Citation

  • Makovec, Mattia & Purnamasari, Ririn & Sandi, Matteo & Savitri, Astrid, 2016. "Intended vs. unintended consequences of migration restriction policies: evidence from a natural experiment in Indonesia," ISER Working Paper Series 2016-13, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2016-13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/working-papers/iser/2016-13.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elsner, Benjamin, 2013. "Emigration and wages: The EU enlargement experiment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 154-163.
    2. Dean Yang, 2008. "International Migration, Remittances and Household Investment: Evidence from Philippine Migrants’ Exchange Rate Shocks," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(528), pages 591-630, April.
    3. Walmsley, Terrie L. & Winters, L. Alan, 2005. "Relaxing the Restrictions on the Temporary Movement of Natural Persons: A Simulation Analysis," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 20, pages 688-726.
    4. George J. Borjas, 2008. "Labor Outflows and Labor Inflows in Puerto Rico," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(1), pages 32-68.
    5. Facchini, Giovanni & Mayda, Anna Maria & Mishra, Prachi, 2011. "Do interest groups affect US immigration policy?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 114-128, September.
    6. Alberto Abadie & Javier Gardeazabal, 2003. "The Economic Costs of Conflict: A Case Study of the Basque Country," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 113-132, March.
    7. J. Edward Taylor & George Dyer, 2009. "Migration and the Sending Economy: A Disaggregated Rural Economy-Wide Analysis," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(6), pages 966-989.
    8. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Susan Pozo, 2006. "Migration, Remittances, and Male and Female Employment Patterns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 222-226, May.
    9. Frederic DOCQUIER & Çaglar OZDEN & Giovanni PERI, 2010. "The Wage Effects of Immigration and Emigration," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2010044, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    10. Giovanni Facchini & Anna Maria Mayda, 2009. "Does the Welfare State Affect Individual Attitudes toward Immigrants? Evidence across Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(2), pages 295-314, May.
    11. Alejandra Cox Edwards & Manuelita Ureta, 2003. "International Migration, Remittances, and Schooling: Evidence from El Salvador," NBER Working Papers 9766, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Samuel Bazzi & Arya Gaduh & Alexander D. Rothenberg & Maisy Wong, 2016. "Skill Transferability, Migration, and Development: Evidence from Population Resettlement in Indonesia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(9), pages 2658-2698, September.
    13. Acosta, Pablo, 2006. "Labor supply, school attendance, and remittances from international migration : the case of El Salvador," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3903, The World Bank.
    14. Gianna Claudia Giannelli & Lucia Mangiavacchi, 2010. "Children's Schooling and Parental Migration: Empirical Evidence on the ‘Left‐behind’ Generation in Albania," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(s1), pages 76-92, December.
    15. Klein, Paul & Ventura, Gustavo, 2009. "Productivity differences and the dynamic effects of labor movements," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1059-1073, November.
    16. Adams, Richard H., Jr. & Cuecuecha, Alfredo, 2010. "The economic impact of international remittances on poverty and household consumption and investment in Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5433, The World Bank.
    17. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2010. "Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 493-505.
    18. Alcaraz, Carlo & Chiquiar, Daniel & Salcedo, Alejandrina, 2012. "Remittances, schooling, and child labor in Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 156-165.
    19. Abdurrahman Aydemir & George J. Borjas, 2007. "Cross-Country Variation in the Impact of International Migration: Canada, Mexico, and the United States," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 5(4), pages 663-708, June.
    20. Jim Airola, 2008. "Labor supply in response to remittance income: the case of Mexico," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 41(2), pages 69-78, January-M.
    21. Taryn Dinkelman & Martine Mariotti, 2016. "The Long-Run Effects of Labor Migration on Human Capital Formation in Communities of Origin," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 1-35, October.
    22. Francisca M. Antman, 2011. "International Migration and Gender Discrimination among Children Left Behind," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 645-649, May.
    23. Francesc Ortega & Giovanni Peri, 2015. "Migration Policies: Recent Advances on Measurement, Determinants and Outcomes," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 61(3-4), pages 521-526.
    24. Timothy J. Hatton, 2007. "Should we have a WTO for international migration? [‘The growth of world trade: Tariffs, transport costs and income similarity’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 22(50), pages 340-383.
    25. Christian Dustmann & Tommaso Frattini & Anna Rosso, 2015. "The Effect of Emigration from Poland on Polish Wages," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 117(2), pages 522-564, April.
    26. Lori A. Beaman, 2012. "Social Networks and the Dynamics of Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from Refugees Resettled in the U.S," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(1), pages 128-161.
    27. Hatton, Timothy J., 2014. "The economics of international migration: A short history of the debate," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 43-50.
    28. Michael Clemens, 2011. "Economics and Emigration: Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk? - Working Paper 264," Working Papers 264, Center for Global Development.
    29. Benjamin Elsner, 2013. "Does emigration benefit the stayers? Evidence from EU enlargement," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(2), pages 531-553, April.
    30. Kaivan Munshi, 2003. "Networks in the Modern Economy: Mexican Migrants in the U. S. Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(2), pages 549-599.
    31. Nguyen, Trang & Purnamasari, Ririn, 2011. "Impacts of international migration and remittances on child outcomes and labor supply in Indonesia : how does gender matter ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5591, The World Bank.
    32. Giannelli, Gianna Claudia & Mangiavacchi, Lucia, 2010. "Children's Schooling and Parental Migration: Empirical Evidence on the," IZA Discussion Papers 4888, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    33. Edwards, Alejandra Cox & Ureta, Manuelita, 2003. "International migration, remittances, and schooling: evidence from El Salvador," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 429-461, December.
    34. Michael A. Clemens, 2011. "Economics and Emigration: Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 83-106, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kalandi Charan Pradhan & K. Narayanan, 2019. "Intensity of labour migration and its determinants: insights from Indian semi-arid villages," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 955-994, October.

    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. Mattia Makovec & Ririn S Purnamasari & Matteo Sandi & Astrid R Savitri, 2018. "Intended versus unintended consequences of migration restriction policies: evidence from a natural experiment in Indonesia," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 915-950.
    2. Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq & Sharif, Iffath & Shrestha, Maheshwor, 2021. "Returns to International Migration: Evidence from a Bangladesh-Malaysia Visa Lottery," IZA Discussion Papers 14232, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Hatton, Timothy J., 2014. "The economics of international migration: A short history of the debate," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 43-50.
    4. Gröger, André, 2021. "Easy come, easy go? Economic shocks, labor migration and the family left behind," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    5. Francisca M. Antman, 2013. "The impact of migration on family left behind," Chapters, in: Amelie F. Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Migration, chapter 16, pages 293-308, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Parag Mahajan & Dean Yang, 2020. "Taken by Storm: Hurricanes, Migrant Networks, and US Immigration," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 250-277, April.
    7. Zhang, Yi & Matz, Julia Anna, 2017. "On the train to brain gain in rural China," Discussion Papers 252443, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    8. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2020. "Development Aid, Remittances Inflows and Wages in the Manufacturing Sector of Recipient-Countries," EconStor Preprints 213439, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    9. Theoharides, Caroline, 2020. "The unintended consequences of migration policy on origin-country labor market decisions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    10. Björn NILSSON, 2019. "Education and migration: insights for policymakers," Working Paper 23ca9c54-061a-4d60-967c-f, Agence française de développement.
    11. Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 2014. "The Impact of Parents Migration on the Well-being of Children Left Behind: Initial Evidence from Romania," IZA Discussion Papers 8225, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Nguyen, Cuong Viet & Nguyen, Hoa Quynh, 2015. "Do internal and international remittances matter to health, education and labor of children and adolescents? The case of Vietnam," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 28-34.
    13. Bose-Duker, Theophiline & Henry, Michael & Strobl, Eric, 2021. "Child fostering and the educational outcomes of Jamaican children," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    14. Randazzo, Teresa & Pavanello, Filippo & De Cian, Enrica, 2023. "Adaptation to climate change: Air-conditioning and the role of remittances," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    15. Görlich, Dennis & Omar Mahmoud, Toman & Trebesch, Christoph, 2007. "Explaining labour market inactivity in migrant-sending families: Housework, hammock, or higher education?," Kiel Working Papers 1391, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    16. De Paoli, Anna & Mendola, Mariapia, 2014. "International Labor Mobility and Child Work in Developing Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 8066, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Saleemi, Sundus, 2021. "Children in left-behind migrant households: education and gender equality," Discussion Papers 311113, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    18. Christian Dustmann & Ian P. Preston, 2019. "Free Movement, Open Borders, and the Global Gains from Labor Mobility," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 783-808, August.
    19. Benjamin Elsner, 2022. "Does emigration increase the wages of non-emigrants in sending countries," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 208-208, March.
    20. Małgorzata Walerych, 2024. "The aggregate and redistributive effects of emigration," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 160(1), pages 99-143, February.

    More about this item

    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:ese:iserwp:2016-13. 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: Jonathan Nears (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rcessuk.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.