Determinants of Migration and Remittance in India: Empirical Evidence

This paper attempts to study the migration behaviour of Indian internal migrants combining both Todaro’s individual utility maximising behaviour and Stark’s household approach. The theoretical model presented here is based on the joint utility maximisation principle in which there are two agents, the migrant and his family members, who maximise their utility in two different situations i.e., first, when the migrant stays out of the home (in migration situation) and second, when the migrant stays in the home (or returns). This model is empirically estimated to study the determinants of both migration and remittance using the National Sample Survey data for 2007-08. The results suggested that individual characteristics like age, marital status and human capital endowments, and household characteristics like the size of the household, caste and land possession have immense influence on both the decision to migrate and sending remittance.