The Winner Takes It All: Internal Migration, Education and Wages in Ethiopia

Niels-Hugo (Hugo) Blunch and Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi ()
Additional contact information
Caterina Ruggeri Laderchi: World Bank

No 8926, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Previous studies of migration have mainly examined international dynamics. Yet, internal migration is an important issue, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using the 2001 Ethiopia Child Labor Survey, a nationally representative household survey, this paper examines internal migration in Ethiopia, focusing on the linkages among internal migration, education and wages. The results suggest that migrants are better educated and obtain higher wages than non-migrants, controlling for other factors (including education), and also obtain higher returns to their education. In other words, the more educated reap higher returns from their education as a main effect, as well as higher returns to their education from migration than non-migrants – that is, "the winner takes it all." This result should be of concern to policy makers in Ethiopia and elsewhere – especially in Sub-Saharan Africa – since individuals with low levels of education already are in a vulnerable group. The study therefore also discusses the policy implications of these results.

Keywords: education; wages; internal migration; Ethiopia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2015-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published - published in: Migration Studies, 2015, 3(3), 417-437

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp8926.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8926

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().