From farms to borders: Agricultural distortions and international migration

Braulio Britos (), Manuel Hernandez () and Danilo Trupkin ()
Additional contact information
Braulio Britos: InternationalMonetaryFund
Manuel Hernandez: International Food Policy Research Institute
Danilo Trupkin: Universidad de San Andrés

No 174, Working Papers from Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia

Abstract: International migration has surged in recent years, especially from rural areas in developing countries. This paper examines how agricultural distortions contribute to these emigration patterns and affect welfare, using Guatemala as a case study. A structural model with agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, estimated with micro and aggregated data, shows that distortions drive emigration among more productive agents and cause factor misallocation, diminishing overall productivity and incomes. Reducing distortions to the most efficient departments lowers emigration by 2.3 points and raises agricultural productivity by 30.1% and median welfare by 4.5%. High-distortion areas are more isolated and lack institutional and financial access.

Keywords: Agricultural distortions; Emigration; Labor mobility; Productivity; Welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J24 J61 O13 O15 O40 Q1 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 75 pages
Date: 2025-12, Revised 2025-12
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https://webacademicos.udesa.edu.ar/pub/econ/doc174.pdf First version, December 2025 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sad:wpaper:174

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