Tied migration and subsequent employment: Evidence from couples in Britain

We use unique information on migration behaviour and reasons for migration to study the impact of tied migration on labour market outcomes among husbands and wives. Fewer than 2% of couples migrate for job-related reasons and the majority of these move for reasons associated with the husband's job. Estimates from dynamic random-effects models indicate that husbands and wives in couples that migrated for job-related reasons suffer lower job retention rates than non-migrants. Tied migration reduces the probability of subsequent employment for both husbands and wives and in particular has a large negative impact on job retention rates among wives.