The Effect of Migration on Health of Adults Left Behind in Indonesia

Yao Lu, University of California, Los Angeles

As a large number of migrants remit income back to households they left behind, an increasing body of literature begins to examine the influence of migration on the well-being of left-behind household members and whether such effects extend to health. Results from previous studies are inconsistent, and depend on the subgroup of people and the specific aspect of health examined. The inconclusive findings may result from offsetting consequences of migration, which are seldom evaluated, and because of failure to address the potential endogeneity of migration. Using high-quality longitudinal data collected in Indonesia, I relate migration to the health of the left-behind population at origin (focusing on adults) through various mechanisms and distinguishing different dimensions of health. I also seek to address the potential endogeneity by incorporating macro-level information as a source of exogenous variation in migration decisions, using the instrumental variable approach.