Empirical evidence of the relationship between risk aversion and migration

Risk aversion has long been considered an important factor behind the migration decision. On the one hand, risk-averse people are less likely to move because they want to avoid the risks inherent to migration. On the other hand, if risk-averse people find themselves in a place where risks are high they will be more likely to migrate away from such place. These two possible relationships between risk aversion and migration have been described theoretically since at least thirty years ago, however empirical evidence to support either relationship has been scant. This is due to the unavailability of adequate data, a problem which the present dissertation resolves. Indeed, this dissertation presents direct evidence on the two relationships between risk aversion and migration described above.;The first chapter presents the details of the field work involved in the collection of experimental and survey measures of individual preferences, including risk aversion. These measures were used to validate the survey measures of risk aversion contained in the Mexican Family Life Survey which in turn were used in the other two chapters of the dissertation.;Using the migration histories contained in the same survey, the second chapter finds evidence that more risk-averse women are less likely to migrate for the first time at a very young age. This is a moment in life when migration is likely to be riskiest, especially for females because social norms establish that women should mostly migrate following a male figure such as the father or husband.;The third chapter concentrates on people who at a young age were living in rural areas and uses historical weather data to proxy for the long-term variability of their agricultural income. It finds that risk-averse and single women who at a young age were living in areas of high agricultural income variability were more likely to migrate away from those places. This result shows that, since there are not sufficient formal mechanisms of insurance, risk-averse people use migration as a means of escaping from risks they cannot otherwise control.