Hidden Income and the Perceived Returns to Migration†

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Baseler, Travis
• 署名单位: University of Rochester
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20210571
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 321-352
• 关键词: Asymmetric information; TECHNOLOGY; insurance; inference; selection; MIGRANTS; gold

摘要

In many developing economies, urban workers earn substantially more than rural workers with the same level of education. Why don't more rural workers migrate to cities? I use two field experiments in Kenya to show that low migration is partly due to underestimation of urban incomes, which is sustained by income hiding by migrants. Parents at the origin underestimate their migrant children's incomes by nearly half, and underestimation is greater when a migrant's remittance obligations are high. Providing information about urban earnings increases migration to the capital city by about 40 percent over two years. (JEL C93, J31, J61, J82, O15, O18, R23)