Happy moves? Assessing the impact of subjective well-being on the emigration decision

Artjoms Ivlevs ()

Working Papers from Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol

Abstract: Recent literature suggests that higher levels of subjective well-being (happiness and life satisfaction) lead to greater productivity, better physical health and enhanced social skills. The governments of migrant-receiving countries should, therefore, be interested in attracting happy migrants, as this can reduce the burden on the welfare state and facilitate migrants’ integration into the host society. To determine how people select into migration on the basis of subjective well-being, we study causal effects of life satisfaction on emigration intentions in 29 post-socialist countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Instrumental variable analysis suggests that higher levels of life satisfaction have a positive effect on the probability of reporting intentions to migrate, i.e. prospective migrants are positively selected on subjective well-being.

Keywords: Subjective well-being; life satisfaction; emigration; transition economies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 O15 P2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-01-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap, nep-mig and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwe:wpaper:20141402

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