Miserable Migrants? Natural Experiment Evidence on International Migration and Objective and Subjective Well-Being

Steven Stillman, John Gibson, David McKenzie and Halahingano Rohorua

World Development, 2015, vol. 65, issue C, 79-93

Abstract: We compare successful and unsuccessful applicants to a migration lottery in order to examine the impact of migration on objective and subjective well-being. The results show that international migration brings large improvements in objective well-being. Impacts on subjective well-being are complex, with mental health improving but happiness declining, self-rated welfare rising if viewed retrospectively but static if viewed experimentally, self-rated social respect rising retrospectively but falling experimentally and subjective income adequacy rising. We further show that these changes would not be predicted from cross-sectional regressions on the correlates of subjective well-being in either Tonga or New Zealand.

Keywords: immigration; lottery; natural experiment; subjective well-being; Tonga; Pacific Islands (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (46)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Miserable Migrants? Natural Experiment Evidence on International Migration and Objective and Subjective Well-Being (2012)
Working Paper: Miserable Migrants? Natural Experiment Evidence on International Migration and Objective and Subjective Well-Being (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:65:y:2015:i:c:p:79-93

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.07.003

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