Migrant Health Selection: Evidence from Mexico and the U.S.

Beth Soldo, University of Pennsylvania
Rebeca Wong, University of Maryland

This paper examines healthy migrant hypotheses using data from the new 2000 Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) and the 1998 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). In the first stage, HRS data on Mexican-born migrants living in the U.S. and MHAS data are pooled to "reconstruct" the mortality-adjusted Mexican population at risk for migration. The right-hand side variables for this logit model are those available in both the HRS and MHAS. This models tests the hypothesis that migrants are a distinct and healthier sub-group in their population of origin. The second stage incorporates information from the first stage equation to estimate the probabilities of domestic and return migration relative to non-movers using only MHAS data. This second stage of the analysis yields predicted probabilities of domestic and return migration conditional on making any move type of move earlier in life.