scholarly journals Unskilled Migration, Child labor and Human Capital Accumulation of Children in the Presence of Parental Absenteeism

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-138
Author(s):  
Yumna Hasan ◽  
Waqar Wadho

Temporary unskilled migration and the remittancesit generateshavethe potential to reduce child labor and improve educational outcomes in developing countries. However, recent literature points towards the adverse impact of the parental absenteeism on children left behind. We build a theoretical model to explore the joint impact of remittances and parental absenteeism on child labor and human capital formation of children left behind in the context of unskilled workers’ migration. We find threshold conditions for the relative wage of source to destination countriesbeyond which unskilled migration helps in reducing child labor and increasing human capital. Moreover, the threshold is endogenous and depends on the sensitivity of human capital formation to parental absenteeism relative to the child’s time spent on acquiring human capital. In a special case when the former is equal to the latter, the wages in the destination country should at least be twice as much as in the source country to have a detrimental (promoting) impact on child labor (human capital formation). Since the importance of parental absenteeism would depend on a variety of sociocultural factors such as marriage, presence of extended families, religious communities, and social networks, there will be heterogeneity in the impact of unskilled migration.

Author(s):  
Maria Polozhikhina ◽  

The article focuses on human capital formation and evaluation. The contradictory impact of the digitalization on institutions that determine the reproduction and use of human capital is analyzed. Special attention is paid to human capital development in Russia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (8) ◽  
pp. 1159-1173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paloma Santana Moreira Pais ◽  
Leonardo Bornacki de Mattos ◽  
Evandro Camargos Teixeira

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of interstate migration of individuals with different qualification levels on human capital formation in the migrant’s place of origin. Design/methodology/approach A dynamic panel model with data from the National Household Sample Survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD)), between 2001 and 2013, is used. Findings The results indicate that the migration of high-skilled people boosts school attendance in fifth grade elementary school and first year high school, but it does not affect the levels of those entering first year in higher education. However, the migration of low-skilled workers discourages people from entering higher education, as those living in less developed areas do not need higher education qualifications to get higher incomes. Thus, they migrate to developed areas with the education levels they already have. The brain gain hypothesis is not, therefore, confirmed in the context of higher education attendance. Originality/value This paper’s contribution is its investigation into the effect of interstate migration on human capital formation in Brazil, through testing the brain gain hypothesis in a national context. In addition, it also analyzes the impact of the migration of people of low and intermediate qualification levels on human capital, with a view to verifying if the mobility of people with other levels of qualification could discourage the formation of human capital.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document