Dustmann, Christian. 2008. “Return Migration, Investment in Children, and Intergenerational Mobility: Comparing Sons of Foreign- and Native-Born Fathers.” Journal of Human Resources 43(2): 299–324.
This paper studies parental investment in education and intergenerational earnings mobility for father-son pairs with native- and foreign-born fathers. We illustrate within a simple model that for immigrants, investment in their children is related to their return migration probability. In our empirical analysis, we include a measure for return probabilities, based on repeated information about migrants’ return intentions. Our results suggest that educational investments in the son are positively associated with a higher probability of a permanent migration of the father. We also find that the son’s permanent wages are positively associated with the probability of the father’s permanent migration.
Christian Dustmann is a professor in the department of economics at University College, London. He is grateful to David Card for many helpful discussions, and to Jerome Adda, Teresa Casey, Steve Machin, Gary Solon, and two anonymous referees for comments. This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant RES-000-23-0332). The data on which this analysis is based are available from the DIW in Berlin. Users must register and sign an agreement with the data provider. The author will help other researchers in pursuing these data. He may be contacted through Department of Economics, University College, London, Gower Street, London WC1E. Email: c.dustmann@ucl.ac.uk.