Micro determinants of female migration in a developing country: labor market, demographic marriage market and economic marriage market incentives
Behrman, J.R.; Wolfe, B.L.
Research in Population Economics 5: 137-166
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0163-7878 PMID: 12266410 Document Number: 356188
A micro study of inter-regional migration by women in Nicaragua is presented. The authors "explore three sets of migratory incentives: (1) labor market factors such as usually are emphasized; (2) 'demographic marriage market' considerations (i.e., the probability of having a male companion)...; and (3) 'economic marriage market' considerations (i.e., the expected earnings from a companion given regional labor market conditions and assortative mating)....[They] use estimates of expected outcomes in origin, destination and third regions--conditional upon the woman's characteristics and upon regional differences in labor and marriage markets--to explore the consistency of actual migratory flows with these three sets of migratory incentives." Data are from a sample of approximately 4,000 women aged 15-45 who were interviewed in 1977-1978.