Do Migrants Improve Governance at Home? Evidence from a Voting Experiment

Catia Batista and Pedro Vicente

No 4688, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper tests the hypothesis that international migration experiences may promote better institutions at home by raising the demand for political accountability. In order to examine this question, we use a simple postcard voting experiment designed to capture the population’s desire for better governance. Using data from a tailored household survey, we examine the determinants of voting behavior in our experiment, and isolate the positive effect of international emigration on the demand for political accountability. We find that this effect can be mainly attributed to the presence of return migrants, particularly to those who emigrated to countries with better governance.

Keywords: Sub-Saharan Africa; Cape Verde; institutions; effects of emigration in origin countries; political accountability; household survey; governance; international migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 O12 O15 O43 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2010-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-cdm, nep-mig, nep-pol and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Published - published in: World Bank Economic Review, 2011, 25 (1), 77-104

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https://docs.iza.org/dp4688.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Do Migrants Improve Governance at Home? Evidence from a Voting Experiment (2011)
Working Paper: Do Migrants Improve Governance at Home? Evidence from a Voting Experiment (2011)
Working Paper: Do Migrants Improve Governance at Home? Evidence from a Voting Experiment (2011)
Working Paper: Do Migrants Improve Governance at Home? Evidence from a Voting Experiment (2009)
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