Migration and Informal Insurance: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial and a Structural Model

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Meghir, Costas; Mobarak, A. Mushfiq; Mommaerts, Corina; Morten, Melanie
• 署名单位: Yale University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; Stanford University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMIC STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6527
• DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdab021
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 452-480
• 关键词: risk; optimization; networks; program; Mexico; income

摘要

We document that an experimental intervention offering transport subsidies for poor rural households to migrate seasonally in Bangladesh improved risk sharing. A theoretical model of endogenous migration and risk sharing shows that the effect of subsidizing migration depends on the underlying economic environment. If migration is risky, a temporary subsidy can induce an improvement in risk sharing and enable profitable migration. We estimate the model and find that the migration experiment increased welfare by 12.9%. Counterfactual analysis suggests that a permanent, rather than temporary, decline in migration costs in the same environment would result in a reduction in risk sharing.