UNU-MERIT Working Papers Series
Home sweet home? Macroeconomic conditions in home countries and the well-being of migrants
Alpaslan Akay, Olivier Bargain & Klaus F. Zimmermann #2016-038This paper examines whether the subjective well-being of migrants is
responsive to fluctuations in macroeconomic conditions in their country
of origin. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel for the years 1984 to
2009 and macroeconomic variables for 24 countries of origin, we exploit
country-year variation for identification of the effect and panel data
to control for migrants' observed and unobserved characteristics. We
find strong evidence that migrants' well-being responds negatively to an
increase in the GDP of their home country. That is, migrants seem to
regard home countries as natural comparators, which grounds the idea of
relative deprivation underlying the decision to migrate. The effect
declines with years-since-migration and with the degree of assimilation
in Germany.
Keywords: Migrants, well-being, GDP, unemployment, relative
concerns/deprivation
JEL Classification: C90, D63
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