International migration, transfer of norms and home country fertility

This paper examines the relationship between international migration and
source country fertility. The impact of international migration on source country fertility
may have a number of causes, including a transfer of destination countries’ fertility norms.
We provide a rigorous test of the diffusion of fertility norms using highly detailed original
data on migration. Our results provide evidence of a significant transfer of destination
countries’ fertility norms from migrants to their country of origin: a 1% decrease (increase)
in the fertility norm to which migrants are exposed reduces (raises) home country fertility
by about 0.3%.