Essays on Migration and Gender

This thesis investigates the interdependence between migration and gender dynamics, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. The first chapter concerns intra-household bargaining and migration decision-making: considering that the decision to migrate is likely to be made within the family, the bargaining powers of household members may shape the result of the decision-making process. Given that there is evidence of women’s altruistic behaviours towards their children, I investigate how women’s bargaining power affects the decisions about the individual migrations of their young offspring, who may benefit from the change in location. A collective model of migration decision-making and an empirical analysis regarding the context of Mexico are presented. This analysis sheds the light on how empowerment may be beneficial not only to women themselves but also to their children, and suggests that policies intending to improve women’s position within the household and the whole society should also acknowledge these positive spillover effects. The second chapter regards the uncertainty over health status and the gendered determinants of migration. While several studies show a relationship between migration and health, migration selection in terms of health conditions is relatively under-investigated, as regards the context of Sub-Saharan African countries. Using panel data from a survey on young women and men living in Malawi, I assess the impact of randomised HIV testing on long- and short-term migrations, and I find that becoming certain of being HIV-negative affects the probability of both types of movements, only for women. This impact evaluation indicates that HIV testing may have gender-specific unintended consequences, which should be considered. Finally, the third chapter evaluates the impact of a randomised intervention, aiming to promote child development through improvements in parenting skills, on the empowerment of women in Bangladesh. Results show that the programme increases women’s autonomy and reduces their exclusion from decision-making processes: these effects do not concern only child-related decisions – consistent with the type of training that women in the treatment group receive – but also decisions about the allocation of resources. The empowerment effect regards only women whose partner has never migrated before the baseline, thus suggesting the existence of a relationship between women’s decision-making power and men’s migration – as found in previous studies.