Migration, Remittances, and Male and Female Employment Patterns

• Published in: The American economic review 2006-05, Vol.96 (2), p.222-226
• Main Authors: Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina, Pozo, Susan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Economic theory; Employment; Females; Gender differences; Hispanic people; Households; Human capital; Income effect; Informal economy; Informal sector; Labor supply; Labour market; Labour supply; Men; Migration; Migration, Human Capital, Employment, and Earnings; Per capita; Remittances; Role; Rural areas; Self employment; Studies; U.S.A; Urban areas; Variables; Wages; Wages & salaries; Women; Work hours; Working hours; Working women
• ISSN: 0002-8282; 1944-7981
• DOI: 10.1257/000282806777211946

This paper traces the impact of international remittances on the labor supply of working-age men and women in Mexico. It accounts for the endogenity of remittance income and examines differences in the hours worked in urban and rural areas, owing to their remittance income. Remittances may reduce or increase work hours depending on the gender of the recipient, the location of the household, and the type of work. One plausible explanation for these differential impacts is that, when measuring the labor supply impact of remittances, the income effect from these monetary inflows is confounded with the disruptive effect caused by the preceding out-migration of family members. Overall, no support was found for the anecdotal observations of reduced labor effort due to greater remittance incomes among Mexican men reported in the popular press. Remittances seem only to be associated with a variation in the allocation of male labor supply across various types of employment. In contrast, remittances are accompanied by an overall drop in female labor supply resulting from reductions in informal sector and nonpaid work in rural areas.