Children and maternal migration: evidence from exogenous variations in family size

Both theoretically and empirically, childbearing decreases female labour supply, but few papers examine the effects of children on whether women emigrate to work. Using exogenous variations in family size induced by parents' preferences for mixed sibling-sex composition in instrumental variable estimations, we find that in Sri Lanka where most migrants are women and mothers, children decrease maternal labour supply in the domestic market but they increase maternal labour supply abroad.