Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/215380 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12984
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This study provides novel evidence on the effects of emigration on pro-environmental behaviour back home. Focusing on the seven successor states of former Yugoslavia, I explore the relationship between people's present-day pro-environmental action and the local-level intensity of a major guestworker emigration wave that occurred four decades earlier. I find that more intense local-level emigration is associated with a lower likelihood of pro-environmental action; the instrumental variable analysis supports the causal nature of this relationship. This finding supports the conjecture that emigration contributes to greater consumerism at home and therefore reduces pro-environmental behaviour. At the same time, controlling for the intensity of local-level emigration, a higher proportion of women in the local migrant population is associated with a greater likelihood of pro-environmental action. As women are generally more likely to undertake pro-environmental behaviour as well as transfer new norms and practices across borders, this finding supports the hypothesis that migration contributes to a cross-border transmission of pro-environmental norms and practices.
Subjects: 
emigration
pro-environmental behaviour
former Yugoslavia
monetary remittances
social remittances
instrumental variable analysis
gender effects
JEL: 
F22
F24
F64
P28
R11
R23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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