The discussion paper by our institute’s researcher Takuya Hasebe and external research fellow Yuma Noritomo, titled "Restricting mothers’ international migration and human capital investment" (SIHS Discussion Paper No. 5), has been accepted by and published in the international academic journal World Development.

This study empirically analyzes the effect of a unique policy in Sri Lanka that restricts mothers with a child under five from migrating internationally for employment. Using a difference-in-differences method, this study estimates the impacts of policy on children. It finds that the policy increased the likelihood that mothers remained at home, which in turn led to improvements in children’s health and education outcomes—including fewer inpatient stays among the targeted children and reduced grade retention among their older siblings.

Although the policy reduced remittances from abroad, the study also finds that this was offset by an increase in domestic remittances, keeping total household income unchanged. The findings highlight the critical role of mothers' physical presence in human capital investment in children and demonstrate the trade-offs between parental migration and income through remittances.

For more details, please refer to the paper at the following URL: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1mGOY,6yxDWHov