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Title: Women and the Economics of Family Migration
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Sandell, Steven H. |
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Women and the Economics of Family Migration Review of Economics and Statistics 59,4 (November 1977): 406-414. Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1928705 Cohort(s): Mature Women, Older Men, Young Men, Young Women Publisher: Harvard University Press Keyword(s): Earnings, Husbands; Earnings, Wives; Family Income; Migration; Mobility Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. In this paper, an economic model is developed to explain the family decision to migrate and the effect of migration on the labor market earnings of men and women. It is based on the tenet that family utility, defined operationally as the husband's and wife's labor market earnings and leisure, is a significant consideration in a (husband-wife) family's decision to migrate. The empirical results are consistent with the theory. On the one hand, the labor market orientation of the wife seems to be taken into consideration in the decision of a family to migrate. On the other hand, the migration of the family increases the earnings of the husband but does not increase the labor market earnings of the wife. In contrast, the earnings of never married women increased after moving. Since family earnings have been shown to increase as a result of migration, the decision to migrate is rational from the viewpoint of the family. It seems that the contribution of the wife to family income is considered, but the positive effect of migration on husband's earnings often outweighs the (initial) negative effect of migration on the wife's weeks worked and consequently, her earnings. This is not to say that migration is involuntary for wives in the usual sense, but to emphasize that what is beneficial to the welfare of the family (and the wife as a family member and consumer of family income) is nevertheless consistent with lower labor market earnings of the wife. The interruption of women's careers is often an effect of migration and the maximization of the utility of the family unit. If the participation of women in the labor force continues to increase, this may have a limiting effect on the geographic mobility of the male labor force. |
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Bibliography Citation
Sandell, Steven H. "Women and the Economics of Family Migration." Review of Economics and Statistics 59,4 (November 1977): 406-414.
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