Date of Award
Spring 2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Economics
First Advisor
Rosenzweig, Mark
Abstract
International migration opportunities improve earnings capacity, but can also create parental separation from children. The net effect of migration on children depends on the relative importance of money and parental presence in determining a child's human capital development, which parent migrates, and at what age they separate from the child. These considerations in turn affect whether, when, and who migrates. I estimate a dynamic model of migrant households with an embedded age-specific child education production function by conducting a panel survey of Filipino migrants and combining it with newly assembled administrative data from the Philippines Department of Education and the Department of Migrant Workers. For identification, I exploit shocks to the demand for male and female Filipino migrant workers in East Asia and the Middle East. I find monetary resources play a considerably more significant role in shaping child human capital from the ages of 11--15, whereas both maternal and paternal time inputs are more critical between the ages of 6--10. A mother's time is always substantially more productive than a father's time across all ages. Parental time and monetary inputs are always complements. Father's and mother's presence are complementary when a child is 6--10, but become substitutes at later ages. Parents internalize the effects of their absence on their children and will more likely migrate if they observe successful academic outcomes. In addition, parents are more likely to migrate when they know their children have a greater endowment of abilities that enhance academic outcomes.
Recommended Citation
Wong, Siuyuat, "Maternal and Paternal Migration and Children’s Human Capital" (2024). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 1450.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/1450
