Économie agroalimentaire

Does migration make rural households more productive? Evidence from Mexico

ESA Working Paper 07-10
Année: 2007
Auteur(s): J. Edward Taylor, Alejandro López-Feldman
The migration of labor out of rural areas and the flow of remittances from migrants to rural households is an increasingly important feature of less developed countries. This paper explores ways in which migration influences incomes and productivity of land and human capital in rural households over time, using new household survey data from Mexico. Our findings suggest that a massive increase in migration to the United States increased per-capita incomes via remittances and also by raising land productivity in migrant-sending households. They do not support the pessimistic view that migration discourages production in migrant-sending economies, nor the view implicit in separable agricultural household models that migration and remittances influence household incomes but not production.
Thème: Pauvreté
Type de document: Document de travail
Pays++++: Mexico
JEL codes: O15, O13