Individual Ability and Selection into Migration in Kenya

Edward Miguel and Joan Hamory ()
Additional contact information
Joan Hamory: Centre of Evaluation for Global Action, University of California

No HDRP-2009-45, Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) from Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Abstract: This study exploits a new longitudinal dataset to examine selective migration among 1,500 Kenyan youth originally living in rural areas. We examine whether migration rates are related to individual “ability”, broadly defined to include cognitive aptitude as well as health, and then use these estimates to determine how much of the urban-rural wage gap in Kenya is due to selection versus actual productivity differences. Whereas previous empirical work has focused on schooling attainment as a proxy for cognitive ability, we employ an arguably preferable measure, a pre-migration primary school academic test score. Pre-migration randomized assignment to a deworming treatment program provides variation in health status. We find a positive relationship between both measures of human capital (cognitive ability and deworming) and subsequent migration, though only the former is robust at standard statistical significance levels. Specifically, an increase of two standard deviations in academic test score increases the likelihood of rural-urban migration by 17%. Accounting for migration selection due to both cognitive ability and schooling attainment does not explain more than a small fraction of the sizeable urban-rural wage gap in Kenya, suggesting that productivity differences across sectors remain large.

Keywords: Migration; selection; human capital; ability; urban-rural wage gap; productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C3 C33 F22 O1 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2009-09, Revised 2009-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-dev, nep-mig and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published as background research for the 2009 Human Development Report.

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Related works:
Working Paper: Individual Ability and Selection into Migration in Kenya (2009)
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