Book Description
The result we derive is that given the process of transmission and the formation of preferences, the inability of the first cohort to act upon its migration preferences does not affect the overall magnitude of migration, only its intertemporal structure. [...] In those populations in which the link between a taste for migration and the chances of survival has been severed, transmission is wholly cultural; the presence of the taste in adults will be replicated by the presence of the taste in children if the adults are present but not if the adults are absent. [...] If wages in the city F are higher than in the home village H, while the price of the consumption good is lower in H than in F, the village H individual will migrate to F (for work) in the first period and return-migrate to H (for consumption) in the second period. [...] The optimal duration of migration is shorter than the duration of life, and the returns to migration are realised when the individual returns to H. [...] The family context Consider a second possibility in which the individual is affiliated with a family and refer to the simple case in which the affiliation takes the form of marriage.