Remittances and Well-Being among Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China

Alpaslan Akay (), Corrado Giulietti, Juan David Robalino () and Klaus Zimmermann ()
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Alpaslan Akay: University of Gothenburg

No 6631, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to propose a systematic approach to empirically analyse the effect of remittances on the utility of migrants, as proxied by their subjective well-being (SWB). Using data from a new survey on China (RUMiC), we estimate models in which a measure of subjective well- being is regressed on the level of remittances, and we find a sizeable positive correlation. The effect of remittances on well-being varies with the socio- economic characteristics of migrants, migration experience and the diversity of family arrangements. As a complementary objective, we use SWB measures to elicit the motivations behind remittances and find evidence that both altruistic (such as pure altruism and reciprocity) and contractual motivations (such as co-insurance and investment) are at work among rural-to-urban migrants in China.

Keywords: subjective well-being; migrants; remittances (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 D64 I3 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2012-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap, nep-ltv, nep-mig and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - revised version published in: Review of Economics of the Household , 2014, 12 (3), 517-546

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Related works:
Journal Article: Remittances and well-being among rural-to-urban migrants in China (2014)
Working Paper: Remittances and Well-Being among Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China (2013)
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