Spillover effects of education on internal migration in Malawi

ABSTRACT The study examines whether education externality effects on migration among household heads in Malawi exists and uses data from the Fourth Malawi Integrated Household Survey. Following the Von Neumann Morgenstern in the random utility maximization framework, the paper aims at contributing to literature in three strands. Firstly, by delving into the possible intra-household and inter-household effects of education on migration decision. Secondly, by assessing the effects of education at different levels of schooling in Malawi and finally by questioning who benefits more from education externalities between the household and the community. Drawing from a discrete choice model and using both the Probit and the random effects Probit models the study finds statistically significant spillover effects measured through the intra-household and inter-household externality effects. Almost 65% of the variations in the propensity to migrate are due to intra-household heterogeneity implying that households benefit more to migration than community. Different levels of education have different levels of impact on migration decision with an increasing positive effect as a person moves up on education ladder. Communities with higher literacy is more unlikely to send its members into migration.