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U.S. Migration Of A Family Member: Impacts On The Activities Of Adolescent Boys And Girls Left Behind In Mexico, Elizabeth T. Powers, Qing Wang

Elizabeth T Powers

We use the Mexican Family Life Study to estimate the effect of a household member’s migration to the U.S. on the time use of family members left behind in Mexico. We show that the effects of migration on adolescents vary with both the migrant’s former household role and with the sex of the left-behind adolescent. Adolescent boys spend less time in paid and agricultural work when males migrate from the household to the U.S., while their mothers correspondingly increase their time in market work and reduce their housework time. We find no significant effects of U.S. migration on adolescent girls’ …