Full Citation
Title: Intra-Household Labor Supply, Migration, and Subsistence Constraints in a Risky Environment: Evidence from Rural El Salvador
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2010
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Abstract: We use panel data from El Salvador to investigate migration and the intra-householdallocation of labor as a strategy for coping with uninsured risk. Consistent with a model of afarm household with a binding subsistence constraint, we show that adverse agriculturalproductivity shocks increased both male migration to the US and the supply of maleagricultural labor within the household in El Salvador. In contrast, after damage sustainedfrom the 2001 earthquakes, female migration from El Salvador declined. This is consistentwith the earthquakes increasing the demand for home production. Overall, householdresponses to uninsured risk appear to be consistent with a simple framework in whichhousehold members are allocated to sectors according to their comparative advantage.Finally, we show no evidence that the labor market in El Salvador is capable of helping ruralSalvadoran households to buffer the effects of adverse shocks.
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Authors: Halliday, Timothy
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Publication Number: 4903
Institution: Institute for the Study of Labor
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Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration
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