Preliminary Emigration and Educational Attainment in Mexico

Abstract. In this paper we examine the relationship between household migration behavior and educational attainment in Mexico. We ask whether children who live in households with external migrants (e.g., migrants in the U.S.) complete more grades of school at a given age than do other children. In theory, the relationship between emigration and schooling is ambiguous. Sending migrants abroad may generate remittances that raise household income and allow children to complete more schooling, but it may also disrupt family life in a manner than hinders childrens scholastic progress. In the estimation, we treat household migration behavior as endogenous, using as instruments the interaction between historical state migration patterns and household characteristics. The preliminary findings are that children in migrant households complete significantly more years of schooling. For girls, the estimated increase ranges from 0.2 years to 0.9 years, but only in households in which parents have low education levels. The results are consistent with emigration helping relax household credit constraints on the financing of education