Do return migrants transfer political norms to their origin country? Evidence from Mali

Lisa Chauvet and Marion Mercier

Journal of Comparative Economics, 2014, vol. 42, issue 3, 630-651

Abstract: This paper explores the link between return migration and political outcomes in the origin country, using the case study of Mali. We use electoral and census data at the locality level to investigate the role of return migration on participation rates and electoral competitiveness. First, we run OLS and IV estimations for the 2009 municipal election, controlling for current emigration and using historical and distance variables as instruments for return migration and current emigration. Second, we build a panel dataset combining the 1998 and 2009 censuses and the electoral results for the municipal ballots of those two years to control for the potential time-invariant unobservable characteristics of the localities. We find a positive impact of the stock of return migrants on participation rates and on electoral competitiveness, which mainly stems from returnees from non-African countries. Finally, we show that the impact of returnees on turnout goes beyond their own participation, and that they affect more electoral outcomes in areas where non-migrants are poorly educated, which we interpret as evidence of a diffusion of political norms from returnees to non-migrants.

Keywords: Return migration; Elections; Mali; Norms transfer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 F22 O15 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (113)

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Working Paper: Do return migrants transfer political norms to their origin country? Evidence from Mali (2014)
Working Paper: Do return migrants transfer political norms to their origin country? Evidence from Mali (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:42:y:2014:i:3:p:630-651

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2014.01.001

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