Self-Selection Patterns among Return Migrants: Mexico 1990-2010

Raymundo Campos-Vazquez and Jaime Lara

Serie documentos de trabajo del Centro de Estudios Económicos from El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos

Abstract: This paper analyzes the self-selection patterns among Mexican return migrants during the period from 1990 to 2010. Using census data, we can identify return migrants who have lived in the United States within the previous 5 years but who currently live in Mexico. To calculate the selection patterns, we non parametrically estimate the counterfactual wages that the return migrants would have experienced had they never migrated by using the wage structure of non migrants. We find evidence that the selection patterns change over time toward negative selection. For example, in 1990, the wages that the male return migrants would have experienced had they not migrated was 6 percent larger than the wages of male non migrants. However, by 2010, the difference had declined to -14 percent. The increasing negativity of the degree of selection is robust to the analysis of specific subgroups: rural and urban, men and women, and states with high migration rates and low migration rates. Moreover, the negative selection results for the period from 2000 to 2010 are robust to the use of different surveys that define a return migrant by using distinct characteristics. Additionally, we observe that the wages of return migrants are larger than those that the migrants would have obtained had they not migrated. This finding shows that migration has a positive effect on the Mexican economy.

Keywords: Mexican migration; self-selection; return migration; wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J61 O54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Self-selection patterns among return migrants: Mexico 1990-2010 (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:emx:ceedoc:2011-09

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