International Migration and Household Well-Being : Evidence from Uzbekistan

As one of the most pivotal ways that labor markets adjust to changing economic conditions, international migration is never far from the center of the national discussion in Uzbekistan. This paper summarizes the relationship between recent internat...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Seitz, William
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/615721561125387061/International-Migration-and-Household-Well-Being-Evidence-from-Uzbekistan
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31975
id okr-10986-31975
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-319752022-09-20T00:14:29Z International Migration and Household Well-Being : Evidence from Uzbekistan Seitz, William MIGRATION REMITTANCES STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION POVERTY SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING SURVEY METHODS LABOR MARKET As one of the most pivotal ways that labor markets adjust to changing economic conditions, international migration is never far from the center of the national discussion in Uzbekistan. This paper summarizes the relationship between recent international migration trends and household well-being using a combination of administrative records and unique panel survey data from the Listening to the Citizens of Uzbekistan study. The panel design provides data on changes in well-being leading up to and following a migrants' departure. This feature enables analysis that controls for unobserved time-invariant respondent and location characteristics. The findings show that weak local labor markets drive labor migration from Uzbekistan. Beginning to consider migration is associated with low life satisfaction, job loss, and unemployment. In contrast, actually migrating is associated with a remarkable improvement in labor market outcomes, alongside strong recovery in subjective and monetary measures of household welfare. The results further show that current migrants are more likely to send remittance payments when household members have deteriorating life satisfaction and/or subjective reports of worsening economic conditions at home. In the absence of remittance income, the poverty rate in Uzbekistan (measured at $3.2/day purchasing power parity) would be expected to rise from 9.6 to 16.8 percent, or to about 12.2 percent assuming (implausibly) that all current migrants were to find formal employment at the local prevailing median wage. 2019-06-26T19:31:05Z 2019-06-26T19:31:05Z 2019-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/615721561125387061/International-Migration-and-Household-Well-Being-Evidence-from-Uzbekistan http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31975 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8910 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Europe and Central Asia Uzbekistan
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic MIGRATION
REMITTANCES
STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION
POVERTY
SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING
SURVEY METHODS
LABOR MARKET
spellingShingle MIGRATION
REMITTANCES
STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION
POVERTY
SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING
SURVEY METHODS
LABOR MARKET
Seitz, William
International Migration and Household Well-Being : Evidence from Uzbekistan
geographic_facet Europe and Central Asia
Uzbekistan
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8910
description As one of the most pivotal ways that labor markets adjust to changing economic conditions, international migration is never far from the center of the national discussion in Uzbekistan. This paper summarizes the relationship between recent international migration trends and household well-being using a combination of administrative records and unique panel survey data from the Listening to the Citizens of Uzbekistan study. The panel design provides data on changes in well-being leading up to and following a migrants' departure. This feature enables analysis that controls for unobserved time-invariant respondent and location characteristics. The findings show that weak local labor markets drive labor migration from Uzbekistan. Beginning to consider migration is associated with low life satisfaction, job loss, and unemployment. In contrast, actually migrating is associated with a remarkable improvement in labor market outcomes, alongside strong recovery in subjective and monetary measures of household welfare. The results further show that current migrants are more likely to send remittance payments when household members have deteriorating life satisfaction and/or subjective reports of worsening economic conditions at home. In the absence of remittance income, the poverty rate in Uzbekistan (measured at $3.2/day purchasing power parity) would be expected to rise from 9.6 to 16.8 percent, or to about 12.2 percent assuming (implausibly) that all current migrants were to find formal employment at the local prevailing median wage.
format Working Paper
author Seitz, William
author_facet Seitz, William
author_sort Seitz, William
title International Migration and Household Well-Being : Evidence from Uzbekistan
title_short International Migration and Household Well-Being : Evidence from Uzbekistan
title_full International Migration and Household Well-Being : Evidence from Uzbekistan
title_fullStr International Migration and Household Well-Being : Evidence from Uzbekistan
title_full_unstemmed International Migration and Household Well-Being : Evidence from Uzbekistan
title_sort international migration and household well-being : evidence from uzbekistan
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/615721561125387061/International-Migration-and-Household-Well-Being-Evidence-from-Uzbekistan
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31975
_version_ 1764475498843340800