Mr. Mahesh Dahal, University of Connecticut
Seminar Title: “Direct and spillover effects of migration on engagement in non-farm business activity: evidence from rural Nepal”
Abstract:
Households in developing countries face significant barriers to starting a business. International migration has the potential to help alleviate some of those constraints, but in absence of enabling conditions, these potential benefits of international migration may not be fully realized. In this paper, I estimate the overall impacts of international migration on entrepreneurship among migrant households and in migrant-origin villages in rural Nepal using two recent rounds of national population census and Nepal living standard measurement survey data. In order to deal with potential endogeneity between migration and entrepreneurship, I use instrumental variables estimation technique using a migration network-related instrumental variable unique to Nepal. I show that migrant households are 8 percentage points less likely to engage in entrepreneurial activities while villages that experience 1 s.d increase in migration see 0.29 s.d increase in entrepreneurship. I also find that villages that have better access to infrastructure such as road network or electricity or villages with a larger proportion of households with female land ownership experience larger increases in entrepreneurship as a result of higher migration.
Friday, February 15, 2019
1:30pm-2:45pm
W.B. Young Building, room 132
View the full Spring 2019 ARE Seminar Schedule
For more information, contact: Tatiana Andreyeva at tatiana.andreyeva@uconn.edu