The Short and Long-term Impact of International Migration on Human Capital Formation of the Left Behind

Abstract

This paper examines the short and long-term impact of international migration on overall human capital formation as well as the quality of human capital formation of the left behind households in the community of origin. Exploiting a unique migration policy, we find that the time passed since the migration event took place could affect the human capital formation of the left behind households differently. Furthermore, we find that international migration could also impact overall human capital as well as the quality of human capital formation differently. In particular, we do not find any impact of short and long-term international migration on the overall human capital formation of the left-behind household members. However, we find that households with long-term migrants are more likely to switch from a lower quality of education and substituting it with a higher quality of education of the left behind household members.