The Hidden Cost of Migration: Effect of Brother’s Migration on Sister’s Marriage Outcomes in Rural Bangladesh∗

This paper examines the effect of brother’s migration on the marriage patterns of sisters in a rural area of Bangladesh. It has been proposed that when sons are mi-grants, especially when accompanied by their spouses, parents become more willing to marry their daughters nearby to secure care support for their old-age. Such will-ingness arises because of a missing market for care. We use a rich dataset from the Demographic Surveillance System in Matlab, Bangladesh, which contains 20 years of marriage and migration records from 1974 to 1996, supplemented by a 1974 base-line census. We compare women who face similar marriage prospects but differ by their brother’s migration status. Consistent with the theoretical predictions of a gen-eral equilibrium model, we find strong evidence that women with migrant brothers are more likely to marry someone from the same village and are also more likely to marry someone with lower human capital. While marrying someone from the same village is a rational response for providing increased care support to parents, marry-ing someone with lower human capital ensures that a woman with migrant brother