Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/225327 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 692
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
Traditional gender norms can restrict independent migration by women, thus preventing them from taking advantage of economic opportunities in urban non-agricultural industries. However, women may be able to circumvent such restrictions by using marriage to engage in long-distance migration - if they are able to match with migrating grooms. Guided by a theoretical model in which women make marriage and migration decisions jointly, we hypothesize that marriage and labour markets will be inextricably linked by the possibility of marital migration. To test our hypotheses, we use the event of the construction of a major bridge in Bangladesh - which dramatically reduced travel time between the economically deprived north-western region and the manufacturing belt located around the capital city Dhaka - as a source of plausibly exogenous variation in migration costs. Our empirical ffndings support our model's main predictions and provide strong evidence for the existence of social barriers to female migration.
Subjects: 
migration
marriage markets
female labour force participation
gender norms
JEL: 
J12
J16
J61
O15
O18
R23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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