Migration Spillovers Within Families: Evidence from Thailand

Travis Baseler

Review of Economic Dynamics, 2025, vol. 55

Abstract: When a person migrates, are their family members more likely to migrate too? I estimate the causal impact of family migrant network size on migration decisions using household survey data from rural Thailand. Large but temporary labor demand shocks in a nearby city—originating from a national infrastructure program—provide plausibly exogenous variation in family members' migration decisions based on their ages at the time of the program. Within a set of individuals too young to be directly impacted by the program, I find that each older family migrant increases their migration probability by about 5 percentage points. Further analysis suggests a role for better information about the destination in driving this impact. My findings imply that the short-run benefits of relieving migration constraints can underestimate the long-run benefits due to spillovers within the household. (Copyright: Elsevier)

Keywords: migration; social networks; family migrants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 D83 J61 O15 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1016/j.red.2024.101255

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