Intended versus unintended consequences of migration restriction policies: evidence from a natural experiment in Indonesia

Mattia Makovec, Ririn S Purnamasari, Matteo Sandi and Astrid R. Savitri

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This article studies the consequences of restrictions to migration at the origin on labor market outcomes and school enrolment in origin communities. Our difference-in-differences specification exploits the differential impact across districts in Indonesia of a reform that restricted the migration of Indonesian female domestic workers towards Saudi Arabia in 2011. Our results suggest that this reform did not lead to higher unemployment in Indonesia, but it increased the proportion of workers employed in informal jobs and in agriculture. No detectable change in the consumption patterns of Indonesian households appears from our analysis, suggesting that rural areas in Indonesia could absorb the sudden increase in the availability of workforce. Our findings also show an increase in junior secondary school enrolment of both males and females, arguably reflecting the importance of the maternal presence in the household for the investment in human capital of children.

JEL-codes: F22 J61 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-06-20
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in Journal of Economic Geography, 20, June, 2018, 18(4), pp. 915-950. ISSN: 1468-2702

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/90156/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Intended versus unintended consequences of migration restriction policies: evidence from a natural experiment in Indonesia (2018)
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:ehl:lserod:90156

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().