TY  - JOUR
AU  - Yang,Dean
TI  - Why Do Migrants Return to Poor Countries? Evidence From Philippine Migrants%u2019 Responses to Exchange Rate Shocks
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12396
PY  - 2006
Y2  - July 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12396
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12396.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Dean Yang
University of Michigan
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
and Department of Economics
735 S. State Street, Room 3316
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Tel: 734/764-6158
Fax: 734/763-9181
E-Mail: deanyang@umich.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2006-07-31
AB  - This paper distinguishes between target-earnings and life-cycle motivations for return migration by examining how Philippine migrants%u2019 return decisions respond to major, unexpected exchange rate changes in their overseas locations (due to the Asian financial crisis). Overall, the evidence favors the life-cycle explanation: more favorable exchange rate shocks lead to fewer migrant returns. A 10% improvement in the exchange rate reduces the 12-month return rate by 1.4 percentage points. However, some migrants appear motivated by target-earnings considerations: in households with intermediate foreign earnings, favorable exchange rate shocks have the least effect on return migration, but lead to increases in household investment.
ER  -