Extended family migration decisions: evidence from Nepal

Abstract Extended families are a common feature of developing country households and have a large influence on individual family members’ decision to migrate. This paper generalizes the Mincer (J Polit Econ 86(5):749–773, https://doi.org/10.1086/260710 , 1978) model of husband-wife migration by including decision makers from the extended family. The model with extended families predicts that migration decisions may become freer than in the husband-wife model because spouses are not more likely to be tied to their partners than members of the extended family. That is, marital status is a smaller deterrent to migration in extended family settings relative to nuclear families. Using data from 2011 and 2016 Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys, I show that husbands are more likely to migrate without their spouses (i.e., leave their wives behind) from extended families than nuclear ones.