TY - JOUR
T1 - International migration desires related to subjective well-being
AU - Cai, Ruohong
AU - Esipova, Neli
AU - Oppenheimer, Michael
AU - Feng, Shuaizhang
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the Gallup Organization for the access to the Gallup World Poll. We also thank Angus Deaton and colleagues in Princeton University for helpful discussions and comments. We are especially thankful to the editor, Amelie Constant and to an anonymous referee for their helpful comments and suggestions. This research was supported by the Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy (STEP) program at Princeton University and the High Meadows Foundation. Responsible editor: Amelie F Constant 1411A Robertson Hall, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. 2502 Carnegie center, Suite 300, Gallup Inc, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. 3448 Robertson Hall, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. 4Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. 5Room 715, School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai 200433, China. 6Department of Economics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014, Cai et al.; licensee Springer.
PY - 2014/12/1
Y1 - 2014/12/1
N2 - Previous research on the determinants of international migration has largely focused on objective factors, such as income. We instead use subjective well-being (SWB) to explain international migration desires, an expressed willingness to migrate. We find that individuals with higher SWB have lower international migration desires. At the individual level, the SWB-migration relationship appears to be more robust than the income-migration relationship. At the country level, national average SWB better indicates international migration desires for rich countries, while income performs better for poor countries. We thus demonstrate the feasibility of employing subjective measures to study at least one aspect of an important social outcome, migration. JEL codes: F22, O15, I31
AB - Previous research on the determinants of international migration has largely focused on objective factors, such as income. We instead use subjective well-being (SWB) to explain international migration desires, an expressed willingness to migrate. We find that individuals with higher SWB have lower international migration desires. At the individual level, the SWB-migration relationship appears to be more robust than the income-migration relationship. At the country level, national average SWB better indicates international migration desires for rich countries, while income performs better for poor countries. We thus demonstrate the feasibility of employing subjective measures to study at least one aspect of an important social outcome, migration. JEL codes: F22, O15, I31
KW - Income
KW - International migration desires
KW - Logistic regression
KW - Subjective well-being
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84983239107&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84983239107&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/2193-9039-3-8
DO - 10.1186/2193-9039-3-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84983239107
VL - 3
JO - IZA Journal of Migration
JF - IZA Journal of Migration
SN - 2193-9039
IS - 1
M1 - 8
ER -