Does Migration Make Rural Households More Productive? Evidence from Mexico

J. Edward Taylor and Alejandro Lopez-Feldman ()
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J. Edward Taylor: Agricultural and Development Economics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization

No 07-10, Working Papers from Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA)

Abstract: The migration of labor out of rural areas and the flow of remittances from migrants to rural households is an increasingly important feature of less developed countries. This paper explores ways in which migration influences incomes and productivity of land and human capital in rural households over time, using new household survey data from Mexico. Our findings suggest that a massive increase in migration to the United States increased per-capita incomes via remittances and also by raising land productivity in migrant-sending households. They do not support the pessimistic view that migration discourages production in migrant-sending economies, nor the view implicit in separable agricultural household models that migration and remittances influence household incomes but not production.

Keywords: Migration; income; agricultural production; Mexico. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O15 O13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev, nep-eff and nep-mig
Date: 2007
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Journal Article: Does Migration Make Rural Households More Productive? Evidence from Mexico (2010)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fao:wpaper:0710

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