Abstract
This paper analyses incomes and socioeconomic status of internal migrants over time and in comparison to their new neighbors and investigates whether status consumption is a way for newly arrived city dwellers to signal their social standing. Using a novel dataset from the emerging economy of Kazakhstan we find that internal migrants earn an income and status premium for their move. In a ...
Abstract
This paper analyses incomes and socioeconomic status of internal migrants over time and in comparison to their new neighbors and investigates whether status consumption is a way for newly arrived city dwellers to signal their social standing. Using a novel dataset from the emerging economy of Kazakhstan we find that internal migrants earn an income and status premium for their move. In a comparison to indigenous city dwellers their earnings and household incomes are not significantly different; however, mobile households report a significantly higher subjective socio-economic status. Exploiting expenditure data, we find that recent migrant households gain status from using visible consumption to impress their new neighbors. This signaling might be used as adaptation to the new economic and social environment or to gain access to social capital. Journal of Comparative Economics 42 (1) (2014) 230-245. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, 80539 Munchen, Germany; Institut fur Ost- und Sudosteuropaforschung, Landshuter Str. 4, 93047 Regensburg, Germany; IZA Bonn, Schaumburg-Lippe-Strasse 5-9, 53113 Bonn, Germany; CESifo Munich, Poschingerstr. 5, 81679 Munchen, Germany; Institute for Employment Research, Weddigenstrasse 20-22, 90478 Nurnberg, Germany; National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. (C) 2013 Association for Comparative Economic Studies Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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