Impact of Temporary External Migration & Remittances on Child Health Outcomes in Punjab, Pakistan Paper No. 03-2021

Abstract

Primary motive of temporary migration in developing countries like Pakistan is generally in response to the income constraint faced by the households. Therefore, to relax the resource constraint, migrants tend to remit back to their families in home countries. This study attempts to look at the impact of temporary external migration and remittances on child health outcomes as measured by height-for-age (HAZ) & weight-for-age z scores (WAZ) in Punjab, Pakistan. Further, we test for the presence of intra household resource allocation bias where boys get preferential treatment in term of health care as compared to girls. Using historic migration rates and number of banks in each district to instrument for external migration and remittances from overseas, respectively, we employ an Instrumental Variable Approach estimated through Two Stage Least Square and Treatment Effect Model. Our results suggest significant positive impact of external migration and remittances on both the indicators of child health outcomes. Further this study confirms the presence of increased bargaining power of women in households headed by females resulting in a greater share of resources being spent on girls relative to boys.