Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/79230 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IOS Working Papers No. 330
Publisher: 
Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung (IOS), Regensburg
Abstract: 
This paper analyses incomes and socioeconomic status of internal migrants over time and in comparison to their new neighbors and investigates whether status consumption is a way for newly arrived city dwellers to signal their social standing. Using a novel dataset from the emerging economy of Kazakhstan we find that internal migrants earn an income and status premium for their move. In a comparison to indigenous city dwellers their earnings and household incomes are not significantly different; however, mobile households report a significantly higher subjective socio-economic status. Exploiting expenditure data, we find that recent migrant households gain status from using visible consumption to impress their new neighbors. This signaling might be used as adaptation to the new economic and social environment or to gain access to social capital.
Subjects: 
Absolute and relative welfare
income
status consumption
conspicuous consumption
signaling model
adaptation
internal migration
rural-urban migration
emerging economy
Kazakhstan
socioeconomic status
JEL: 
P36
I31
R23
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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