Married men with children may stop working when their wives emigrate to work: Evidence from Sri Lanka

Sarma, Vengadeshvaran and Parinduri, Rasyad (2014): Married men with children may stop working when their wives emigrate to work: Evidence from Sri Lanka.

Abstract

We examine what happens to Sri Lankan men’s labour supply when their wives emigrate to work and leave the husbands and children at home—the effects of maternal migration on the husbands’ labour supply. Using sibling sex-composition of a household as an instrumental variable for the household’s number of children in three-stage least-square estimations, we find maternal migration reduces the husbands’ labour supply. The husbands are more likely to exit the labour market and become unemployed; the employed are less likely to moonlight and have lower wages; those that exit the labour market are more likely to become stay-at-home dads.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: maternal migration, labour supply, South Asia, Sri Lanka
• Subjects: F - International Economics > F2 - International Factor Movements and International Business > F22 - International Migration; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J22 - Time Allocation and Labor Supply; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O15 - Human Resources ; Human Development ; Income Distribution ; Migration

References

Abeykoon, A. T. P. L. (1995). ‘Sex Preference in South Asia: Sri Lanka an Outlier.’ Asia-Pacific Population Journal, Vol. 10(3), pp. 5-16.

Acosta, P. (2006). ‘Labor supply, school attendance, and remittances from international migration: the case of El Salvador.’ Policy Research Working Paper Series 3903. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.

Amuedo-Dorantes, C. and Pozo, S. (2006). ‘Migration, Remittances, and Male and Female Employment Patterns.’ American Economic Review, Vol. 96(2), pp. 222-226.

Angrist, J. D. and Evans W. (1998). ‘Children and their parents’ labour supply: Evidence from exogenous variations in family size.’ The American Economic Review, Vol. 88(3), pp. 450-477.

Antman, F. M. (2012). ‘The impact of Migration on Family Left Behind.’ IZA Discussion Paper No. 6374. Bonn: Institute for the study of labor (IZA).

Arnold, F. (1992). ‘Sex Preferences and Its Demographic and Health Implications.’ International Family Planning Perspectives, Vol. 18(3), pp. 93-101.

Baez, J. E. (2008). ‘Does more mean better? Sibling sex composition and the link between family size and Children’s Quality.’ IZA Discussion Paper No. 3472. Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA).

Binzel, C. and Assaad, R. (2011). ‘Egyptian men working abroad: Labour supply responses by the women left behind.’ Labour Economics, Vol. 18, pp. 598-5114.

Central Bank of Sri Lanka (2012). Annual Report 2012. Colombo: Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Cortes, P. (2013) ‘The Feminization of International Migration and its Effects on the Children Left Behind: Evidence from the Philippines.’ World Development, (forthcoming). DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.10.021.

Cruces, G., and Galiani, S. (2007). ‘Fertility and Female Labour Supply in Latin America: New Causal Evidence.’ Labour Economics, Vol. 14(3), pp. 565-573.

Gamburd, M. R. (2000). The Kitchen Spoon’s Handle: Transnationalism and Sri Lanka’s Migrant Housemaids. New York: Cornell University Press.

Killingsworth, M. (1983). Labour Supply. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kim, N. (2007). ‘The impact of remittances on labor supply: The case of Jamaica.’ World Bank Policy Research, Working Paper 4120. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.

Lokshin, M. and Glinskaya, E. (2009). ‘The effect of male migration on employment patterns of women in Nepal.’ The World Bank Economic Review, Vol. 23(3), pp. 481-507.

Mendola, M. and Carletto, G. (2012). ‘Migration and gender differences in the home labour market: Evidence from Albania.’ Labour Economics, Vol. 19(6), pp.870-880.

Rodriguez, E. R. and Tiongosn, E. R. (2001). ‘Temporary migration overseas and household labor supply: evidence from urban Philippines.’ International Migration Review, Vol. 35(3), 709-725.

Sarma, V. and Parinduri, R. (2013). ‘What happen to children's education when their parents emigrate? Evidence from Sri Lanka’. MPRA Paper No. 52278. Munich: University Library of Munich.

Sarma, V. and Parinduri, R. (2014). ‘Children and Maternal Migration: Evidence from Exogenous Variations in Family Size.’ MPRA Paper No. 56283. Munich: University Library of Munich.

Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (2012). Annual Statistical Report of Foreign Employment. Colombo: Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.

Staiger, D. and Stock, J. H. (1997). ‘Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments.’ Econometrica, Vol. 65(3). pp. 557-586.

Stock, J.H., and Yogo, M. (2005). ‘Testing for Weak Instruments in Linear IV Regression’. In: Andrews, D.W.K (ed.). Identification and Inference for Econometric Models. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 80-108.

United Nations (2013). ‘232 million international migrants living abroad worldwide - new UN global migration statistics reveal’. UN Press Release. [Available online at] http://esa.un.org/unmigration/documents/UNpressrelease_IntlMigrationFigures_11September2013.pdf. Accessed on December 8, 2013.

World Bank (2013). ‘Migration and Remittance Flows: Recent Trends and Outlook, 2013-2016’. Migration and Development Brief 21. Washington D.C.: World Bank.

Wijayaweera, W. J. L. U. (2014). ‘Recent trends and policies on labour migration in Sri Lanka’. Presented at the 4th ADBI-ILO Roundtable on Labour Migration in Asia: Building Human Capital Across Borders. 28th January 2014, ADBI, Tokyo, Japan.

World Bank (2014). World Development Indicators. [Available online at] http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators. Accessed on 11 August, 2014.