Internal Migration, Earnings, and the Importance of Self-selection

Ather Ahmed () and Ismail Sirageldin
Additional contact information
Ismail Sirageldin: The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A.

The Pakistan Development Review, 1994, vol. 33, issue 3, 211-227

Abstract: This paper analyses the impact of internal migration on earnings within the human capital model framework. Since migrants constitute a non-random sample of population, the endogenous nature of migration decision warrants necessary correction for the selectivity bias in their earnings function. The Mincer-type earnings model is thus augmented to determine the extent of this bias. Besides estimating the standard Mincerian earnings model, the paper also attempts to verify the learn-as-you-go proposition by introducing migration duration variables in the earnings model. Based on the household level Population, Labour Force, and Migration (1979-80) survey data, the analysis yields the following important conclusions: (i) the data allowed a meaningful estimation of Mincerian earnings function for migrants and non-migrants; (ii) the level of schooling was one of the important determinants of the distribution of income both for migrants and non-migrants-the four categorical variables of education were in general statistically significant with expected signs, implying that the hypothesis of a positive relationship between income and education was accepted; (iii) the rates of return to education improved systematically with higher levels of education, thus confirming the notion that education serves as a signalling device; (iv) the age-income profile was almost linear for migrants but showed concavity for non-migrants; (v) the presence of sample-selection was observed for migrants; and (vi) even after controlling for the influence of personal characteristics, i.e., education and experience, the long-standing migrants earned relatively more at the destination than the more recent migrants.

Date: 1994
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.pide.org.pk/pdf/PDR/1994/Volume3/211-227.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pid:journl:v:33:y:1994:i:3:p:211-227

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The Pakistan Development Review from Pakistan Institute of Development Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Khurram Iqbal ().