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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Michalopoulos, Stelios |
| Abstract: | This research examines theoretically and empirically the economic origins of ethnolinguistic diversity. The empirical analysis constructs detailed data on the distribution of land quality and elevation across contiguous regions, virtual and real countries, and shows that variation in elevation and land quality has contributed significantly to the emergence and persistence of ethnic fractionalization. The empirical and historical evidence support the theoretical analysis, according to which heterogeneous land endowments generated region specific human capital, limiting population mobility and leading to the formation of localized ethnicities and languages. The research contributes to the understanding of the emergence of ethnicities and their spatial distribution and offers a distinction between the natural, geographically driven, versus the artificial, man-made, components of contemporary ethnic diversity. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic Diversity; Geography; Technological Progress; Human Capital; Colonization |
| JEL: | O1 O43 Z13 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–10–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:11531&r=mig |
| By: | Grip Andries de; Fouarge Didier; Sauermann Jan (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | In public policy, international migration of scientists and engineers is often seen as achance of recruiting the most talented and productive workers. However, it can alsobe a risk in terms of loosing a country’s talented workers. In this paper, we analysemigration of graduates from science and engineering studies from nine Europeancountries. Using a dataset with information on personal characteristics, previousmigration experience, as well as study- and work-related variables, we analyse thedeterminants of migrating to the country of the first job and to the country of subsequentjobs after graduation. We find that not only wage gains are driving the migrationdecision. Differences in labour market opportunities related to R&D spending area strong predictor of future migration. Furthermore, past migration experiences arerelated to a higher probability of labour migration. Moreover, we find evidence ofselective migration: the best graduates are most likely to migrate. Contrary to ourexpectation, qualitative aspects of the job match such as the utilisation of skills in thejob and involvement in innovation hardly seem to matter in the decision whetheror not to migrate. Interestingly, the wage level affects migration towards countriesin continental Europe, whereas Anglo-Saxon countries seem to attract migrants duetheir larger R&D intensity. |
| Keywords: | education, training and the labour market; |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2008006&r=mig |
| By: | Francesca Marchetta (Università degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche) |
| Abstract: | Environmental changes affect the livelihood of the rural population. This is especially true for those households who mainly rely on farming for their subsistence. In Northern Ghana, during the last two decades, soil erosion, the increasing unpredictability of the rains and the raise in the population size - with the ensuing pressure on the land - contributed to make people even more vulnerable to environmental conditions. These factors - together with the adverse market conditions for the local produce and the neglect of the region in the design of adjustment policies - pushed rural population towards income generating activities alternative to farming (i.e. migration and non farm activities). In this paper, we use a multivariate analysis to explore the determinants of income diversification from a household perspective. We find that non agricultural activities represent an option that better-off households - and communities - can resort to, in order to overcome the difficulties of the agricultural sector; while out-rural seasonal migration is emerging as a coping strategy adopted by poor households to meet their basic needs, and it is unlikely to improve their socioeconomic condition in the long run. |
| Keywords: | income diversification, poverty, inequality, migration |
| JEL: | I32 O15 O55 Q12 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2008_16.rdf&r=mig |
| By: | Mercedes Teruel-Carrizosa (GRIT, Universitat Rovira i Virgili); Agustí Segarra-Blasco (GRIT, Universitat Rovira i Virgili) |
| Abstract: | This article analyses the effect of immigration flows on the growth and efficiency of manufacturing firms in Spanish cities. To date, most studies have tended to focus on the effect immigrants have on labour markets at an aggregate level. Here, however, we undertake an exhaustive analysis at the firm level and report conclusive empirical findings. Ten years ago, Spain began to register massive immigration flows, concentrated above all on its most dynamic and advanced regions. Here, therefore, rather than focusing on the impact this has had on Spain’s labour market (changes to the skill structure of the workforce, increase in labour supply, the displacement of native workers, etc.), we examine the arrival of immigrants in terms of the changes this has meant to the structure of the country’s cities and their amenities. Thus, we argue that the impact of immigration on firm performance should not only be considered in terms of the labour market, but also in terms of how a city’s amenities can affect the performance of firms. Employing a panel data methodology, we show that the increasing pressure brought to bear by immigrants has a positive effect on the evolution of labour productivity and wages and a negative effect on the job evolution of these manufacturing firms. In addition, both small and new firms are more sensitive to the pressures of such immigrant inflows, while foreign market oriented firms report higher productivity levels and a less marked impact of immigration than their counterparts. In this paper, we also present a set of instruments to correct the endogeneity bias, which confirms the effect of local immigration flows on the performance of manufacturing firms. |
| Keywords: | firm growth, firm location, regional effects |
| JEL: | L25 R12 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrp:wpaper:xreap2008-11&r=mig |
| By: | Masurel, E. (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculteit der Economische Wetenschappen en Econometrie (Free University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics Sciences, Business Administration and Economitrics) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides empirical evidence concerning the relationship between ethnic minority entrepreneurs and local shopkeepers’ associations in Amsterdam. Having more members means more support for the local shopkeepers’ association, which in turn may have a positive impact on the shopping area, and the surrounding neighbourhood. In this way, local shopkeepers’ associations exercise an important function of social entrepreneurship. Many Western cities faced a strong growth of ethnic minority entrepreneurship in recent years. However, ethnic entrepreneurs join these local shopkeepers’ associations less frequently compared to native entrepreneurs. To turn the tide for the decreasing support for the local shopkeepers’ associations, the reasons for (not) joining, both for ethnic minority entrepreneurs and for native entrepreneurs, were researched. After a thorough literature survey, 70 shopkeepers in Amsterdam were interviewed. The most important reasons why entrepreneurs do not join these associations are: insufficient benefits of the membership; costs of the membership too high; ignorance of the purpose of the local shopkeepers’ association in that area; and distrust of this association. For ethnic entrepreneurs, ignorance of the purpose of the local shopkeepers’ association in that area and ignorance of the purpose of these associations in general are more important reasons not to join. In order to attract more members, these reasons should be incorporated in the associations’ future policy. |
| Keywords: | ethnic minority entrepreneurship, local shopkeepers’ associations, social cohesion, mixed embeddedness |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:vuarem:2008-16&r=mig |
| By: | Morgenroth, Edgar (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)); O'Brien, Martin (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between migration and trade. Specifically it adds to the existing literature by allowing for the endogeneity of migration, as predicted by theory, while also allowing for the relationship between trade and migration to be non-linear. In contrast to previous single country studies this paper utilises a large cross section dataset for 26 countries and their trading partners. |
| Keywords: | DYNREG, International Migration, International Trade, Gravity Model |
| JEL: | F16 F22 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:dynreg26&r=mig |
| By: | Michael Clemens; Satish Chand |
| Abstract: | Does the emigration of highly-skilled workers deplete local human capital? The answer is not obvious if migration prospects induce human capital formation. We analyze a unique natural quasi-experiment in the Republic of the Fiji Islands, where political shocks have provoked one of the largest recorded exoduses of skilled workers from a developing country. Mass emigration began unexpectedly and has occurred only in a well-defined subset of the population, creating a treatment group that foresaw likely emigration and two different quasi-control groups that did not. We use rich census and administrative microdata to address a range of concerns about experimental validity. This allows plausible causal attribution of post-shock changes in human capital accumulation to changes in emigration patterns. We show that high rates of emigration by tertiary-educated Fiji Islanders not only raised investment in tertiary education in Fiji; they moreover raised the stock of tertiary educated people in Fiji—net of departures. |
| Keywords: | migration, human capital, fiji |
| JEL: | F22 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:152&r=mig |
| By: | Kurka, Bernhard; Trippl, Michaela; Maier, Gunther |
| Abstract: | In today's knowledge-based global economy, highly qualified people acting as carriers of knowledge are playing a crucial role for the growth and development of organizations, cities and regions. Top-talent is regarded as the major source of innovation and competitive advantage, particularly in science and research. Highly skilled and educated workers, such as scientists and scholars, who are transferring their embodied knowledge from one place to another through geographical mobility, are referred to as knowledge spillover agents (KSA). Considering this context it is important to develop an understanding of the motivational dynamics, location factors and knowledge flows associated with mobility decisions of scientists and researchers. Based on qualitative data from in-depth interviews with Austrian scientists who are either currently staying abroad or have already returned this explorative study identifies some characteristics of scientific mobility, investigates the most relevant push and pull factors as well as sheds some light on the motivational dynamics at the individual level. acting as carriers of knowledge are playing a crucial role for the growth and development of organizations, cities and regions. Top-talent is regarded as the major source of innovation and competitive advantage, particularly in science and research. Highly skilled and educated workers, such as scientists and scholars, who are transferring their embodied knowledge from one place to another through geographical mobility, are referred to as knowledge spillover agents (KSA). Considering this context it is important to develop an understanding of the motivational dynamics, location factors and knowledge flows associated with mobility decisions of scientists and researchers. Based on qualitative data from in-depth interviews with Austrian scientists who are either currently staying abroad or have already returned this explorative study identifies some characteristics of scientific mobility, investigates the most relevant push and pull factors as well as sheds some light on the motivational dynamics at the individual level. |
| Keywords: | growth/innovation |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:dynreg30&r=mig |
| By: | Partridge, Jamie; Furtan, Hartley |
| Abstract: | We use an augmented national ideas production function to examine skilled immigrants' impact on Canadian innovation at the provincial level. Empirically, this model was tested using Canadian data by province on innovation flow over an 11 year time period, where innovation flow is defined in terms of international (U.S.) patents. It was found that skilled immigrants, who are proficient in either English or French, have a significant and positive impact on innovation flow in their home province. Further, in examining skilled immigrants by source region, it was found that skilled immigrants from developed countries have the greatest impact on their home province's innovation flow. This is true of North American/European skilled immigrants for all skill-level categories including language proficiency, education, and immigrant class. For immigrants from developing countries, only highly educated Eastern Europeans and Low Income Asians classified as "Independent Workers" are both significant and positively related to their home province's innovation flow. |
| Keywords: | Canada, endogenous technological change, innovation, national ideas, production function, patents, skilled immigrants, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea08:6504&r=mig |
| By: | Enver, Ayesha; Partridge, Mark |
| Abstract: | Replaced with revised version of paper 07/24/08. |
| Keywords: | Overlapping Generations Model, Rural-Urban Migration, Poverty Traps, Agglomeration Economies, Place-based Policies, Person-based Policies, Consumer/Household Economics, Labor and Human Capital, R13, R58, O15, |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea08:6475&r=mig |
| By: | Baycan-Levent, T. (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculteit der Economische Wetenschappen en Econometrie (Free University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics Sciences, Business Administration and Economitrics); Nijkamp, P.; Sahin, M. |
| Abstract: | A growing number of the second-generation migrant entrepreneurs and an orientation to non-traditional sectors have become the new trends in migrant entrepreneurship in recent years. Although traditional sectors are still the most popular among the first generation migrant entrepreneurs, because of the increasing pressure and high competitiveness in traditional areas, new niches are developing and while the first generation has more often become active in these new areas such as the producer services sector which includes finance, insurance, real estate and business-related professional services, the second generation have contributed to the emergence of new areas of immigrant business activity such as the ICT and the creative industries. Against this background, this study focuses on the external orientations of the second generation migrant entrepreneurs while addressing in particular the way – and the extent to which – the choice for entrepreneurship is made by higher-educated young ethnic generations. The empirical data of our study is based on in-depth personal interviews held in the first half of 2007. We employed a recently developed multivariate qualitative calissification method, coined rough set analysis in order to investigate the motivation, goals and strategies of second generation Turkish entrepreneurs in the ICT and the FIRE sector in the Netherlands. The results of our study show that the second generation Turkish entrepreneurs in the Netherlands have started to orient to new and non-traditional sectors like ICT and FIRE sectors. The motivation and driving forces of the second generation Turkish entrepreneurs are stemming from both their personal characteristics shaped by their higher educational level and their previous working experience as an employee or entrepreneur in the same sector. The demand for and a gap in the sector as well as the growing and promising structure of the sector play also an important role in pulling the second generation Turkish immigrants to become entrepreneur in |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:vuarem:2008-15&r=mig |
| By: | De Brauw, Alan; Giles, John |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the impact of reductions in barriers to migration on the consumption of rural households in China. We find that increased migration from rural villages leads to significant increases in consumption per capita, and that this effect is stronger for poorer households within villages. Household income per capita and non-durable consumption per capita both increase with out-migration, and increase more for poorer households. We also establish a causal relationship between increased out-migration and investment in housing and durable goods assets, and these effects are also stronger for poorer households. We do not find robust evidence, however, to support a connection between increased migration and investment in productive activity. Instead, increased migration is associated with two significant changes for poorer households: increases both in the total labor supplied to productive activities and in the land per capita managed by the household. In examining the effect of migration, we pay considerable attention to developing and examining our identification strategy. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Migrant Networks, Consumption, Poverty, Wealth, Rural China, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Labor and Human Capital, O12, O15, J22, J24, |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea08:6085&r=mig |
| By: | Richter, Susan M. |
| Abstract: | The economic literature has highlighted how in the absence of income insurance risk averse households may voluntarily withdraw from credit markets, since contract terms may transfer too much risk to the household (Boucher, Carter, and Guirkinger, 2007). Therefore, households may forgo activities with higher expected income in favor of activities with less income variability across states of nature (Morduch, 1995). Recent literature has also evaluated how remittances provide households with insurance against income shocks (Yang and Choi, 2007; Rosenzweig and Stark, 1989) and how remittances may help households bypass financial intermediaries (Woodruff and Zenteno, 2001; Taylor, Rozelle, and de Brauw, 2003). There has been minimal attention, however, on how access to the potential receipt of remittances affects household participation in financial credit markets. On the one hand, the direct effect of remittances might decrease liquidity constraints at the household level and thus decrease credit demand. On the other hand remittances may provide households with insurance and thus increase willingness to accept credit contract terms. In this paper I estimate the effect of the potential receipt of remittances on credit demand. Potential receipt of remittances is estimated by predicting the household's receipt of remittances and variables that proxy for the strength and vulnerability of migration networks. Results indicate that the predicated amount of remittances received at the household level have a positive effect on credit demand. |
| Keywords: | Financial Economics, Health Economics and Policy, F22, F24, L14, O1, 015, |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea08:6261&r=mig |
| By: | Walters, Lurleen M.; Emerson, Robert D.; Iwai, Nobuyuki |
| Abstract: | The issue of legalization for unauthorized farm workers is examined in this paper. The analytical framework uses a treatment effects approach which casts legalization as a treatment under the assumption of heterogeneity. The results show an overall positive impact of legalization on farm worker wage outcomes and with the expected positive sorting on the gains from legal status. |
| Keywords: | International Relations/Trade, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea08:6285&r=mig |
| By: | Nonthakot, Phanin; Villano, Renato |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between labour migration and agricultural productivity in the Northern Province of Thailand. Drawing on maize production data from a household survey, we estimate a stochastic production function to evaluate the effects of migration, remittances and salient characteristics of migrants on the mean maize output and levels of technical efficiency. Evidence shows that remittances and number of migrant workers facilitate maize production. It was also found that remittances, duration of migration, gender and education of migrants enhance the productive capacity of maize farmers. |
| Keywords: | Migration, stochastic frontier, technical efficiency, maize, Thailand, Crop Production/Industries, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aare08:5981&r=mig |
| By: | Gordon H. Hanson |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I selectively discuss recent empirical work on the consequences of global labor mobility. I examine how international migration affects the incomes of individuals in sending and receiving countries and of migrants themselves. Were a social planner to choose the migration policies that would maximize global welfare, she would need to know, among other values, the elasticities of wages, prices, taxes, and government transfers with respect to national labor supplies, as well as how these parameters vary across countries. My goal is to evaluate the progress of the literature in terms of providing these inputs. |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14490&r=mig |