The literature on the economics of migration is immense and it provides three different conceptual frameworks to model the decision to emigrate. In addition to differences among these three models, there are inconsistencies between previous studies within each approach in terms of theoretical rationales for inclusion of variables and their main empirical results. Recently, the literature has focussed more on the effects of migration from the perspective of the home countries, with efforts towards seeking a consensus on the appropriate model of migration decision-making left aside. This thesis is an attempt to fill this gap in the literature. Given the importance of social relations and the system of values, the household is arguably the most appropriate decision-making unit among KS- Albanian households. This thesis tests the applicability of a household perspective in modelling Kosovan migration behaviour. A theoretical framework is outlined where the household as the decision-making unit is modelled as maximising the sum of total expected present value of utilities from current and future household consumption at home and abroad. This theoretical framework is transformed into an empirical proposition that investigates the determinants of whether households plan to send at least one member abroad using a Kosova data set of 2007. This does not cover the second stage of decision making, of which household member(s) will be send. The empirical results are broadly in line with the theoretical expectations of this conceptual framework. The results from the propensity to emigrate suggest that the attitudinal variable, which is unique to this thesis and controls for whether the household head perceives that household income has decreased, is an important determinant. This household perspective is developed to consider the decision on the duration of emigration. The empirical results provide fairly broad support for the theoretical expectations of the model. Additionally, the results indicate that, in addition to economic factors, the prevailing political situation may be important in determining the probability of return conditional on migration duration. Given the major political change in Kosova in 2008, the model developed is further tested by considering its stability over time. The empirical results suggest that the model structure has remained stable over the period of investigation. A further examination based on data from the Albanian LSMS 2008 suggests that the household approach may have greater applicability to migration behaviour in that country. In summary, notwithstanding the countries were chosen to favour the household approach, the results obtained provide broad support for the extended formulation of the household approach.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:556206 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Kotorri, Mrika |
| Publisher | Staffordshire University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/1985/ |
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