TY  - JOUR
AU  - Berman,Eli
AU  - Rzakhanov,Zaur
TI  - Fertility, Migration, and Altruism
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7545
PY  - 2000
Y2  - February 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7545
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7545.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Eli Berman
Department of Economics, 508
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA  92093
Tel: 858/534-2858
Fax: 858/534-7040
E-Mail: elib@ucsd.edu

Zaur Rzakhanov
Dept. opf Economics
Suffolk University
8 Ashburton Pl.
Boston, MA 02108
E-Mail: zrzakhan@suffolk.edu
AB  - Consider migration to a higher income region as a human capital investment in which parents bear migration costs and children share returns.  Migrants from a population with heterogeneous intergenerational discount rates will be self-selected on intergenerational altruism. Thus, immigrants may be self-selected on fertility. Soviet Jews who migrate to Israel despite high migration costs have significantly more children than members of the same birth cohort who migrate later when costs are low. We distinguish selection from treatment effects using a comparison group of women who migrate after childbearing age. We also find that immigrants favor bequests more and spend more time with their grandchildren in the U.S. Health and Retirement Survey. Selection on altruism can explain why historically immigrant-absorbing countries like the U.S. have higher fertility than other countries at comparable income levels. It provides an alternative explanation for Chiswick's classic earnings-overtaking result. Selection on altruism also implies that immigrant-absorbing regions will grow faster, or have higher per capita income, or both.
ER  -