|
on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Ernest Miguélez (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Rosina Moreno (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Jordi Suriñach (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to provide new insights into the well-studied phenomenon of knowledge spillovers. We study one of the main mechanisms through which these spillovers occur, that is, the mobility of highly-skilled individuals. In contrast to earlier studies, we focus on the geographical mobility of inventors across European regions. First, we gather information from PCT patent documents (from the OECD REGPAT database, May 2008 edition) and match the names which seemed to belong to the same inventor using name matching algorithms; second, we create a new algorithm to decide whether each patent applied for under each name belongs to the same inventor, according to set of predetermined characteristics. We use this information to trace the pattern of scientists’ and inventors’ mobility across European regions. |
| Keywords: | inventors’ mobility, knowledge spillovers,name matching algorithms, exploratory data analysis |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:200916&r=mig |
| By: | Galloway, Taryn Ann (Statistics Norway); Gustafsson, Björn (Göteborg University); Pedersen, Peder J. (University of Aarhus); Österberg, Torun (University of Gothenburg) |
| Abstract: | Immigrant and native child poverty in Denmark, Norway and Sweden 1993 to 2001 is investigated using large sets of panel data. While native children face yearly poverty risks of less than 10 percent in all three countries and for all years investigated the increasing proportion of immigrant children with an origin in middle and low income countries have poverty risks that varies from 38 and up to as much as 58 percent. At the end of the observation period one third of the poor children in Norway have an immigrant origin, and that corresponding proportion is as high as about a half in Denmark as well as in Sweden. The strong overrepresentation of immigrant children from low and middle income countries when measured in yearly data is also found when applying a longer accounting period. We find that child poverty rates are generally high shortly after arrival to the new country, and typically decreases with years since immigration. Multivariate analysis shows that parents years since immigration and education affect risks of the number of periods in persistent poverty. While a native child is very unlikely to spend nine years in poverty, the corresponding risk for a child to a newly arrived immigrant from Turkey was found to be far from negligible. Much of the pattern is similar across the three countries but there are also some differences. |
| Keywords: | child poverty, immigration, Denmark, Norway, Sweden |
| JEL: | F22 I32 J15 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4232&r=mig |
| By: | Radax, Wolfgang |
| Abstract: | The endogenous border formation model of Alesina and Spolaore (1997) has received a lot of attention in the economics community. One of its central messages is that in a democratic world in equilibrium there is an ineciently large number of nation states. However, this result is obtained under very specic assumptions like a uniform population distribution and no population mobility. In this paper, I generalize the model of Alesina and Spolaore allowing for population distributions other than the uniform distribution. Since this generalization is accompanied by the loss of tractability in closed form, I calculate the equilibria by means of numerical computation. It turns out that the above-mentioned central result is highly sensitive to the choice of population distribution and that the model shows four different regimes depending on the chosen distribution. Furthermore, the behaviour implied by the Alesina and Spolaore model with uniform population distribution is the exception, not the rule. |
| Keywords: | Size of Nations; Endogenous Border Formation; Computational Economics |
| JEL: | F50 H40 |
| Date: | 2009–06–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:15783&r=mig |
| By: | Epstein, Gil S. (Bar-Ilan University); Heizler (Cohen), Odelia (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine possible network formations among immigrants and natives with endogenous investment. We consider a model of a network formation where the initiator of the link bears its cost while both agents benefit from it. We present the model by considering possible interactions between immigrants and the new society in the host country: assimilation, separation, integration and marginalization. The paper highlights different aspects of immigrants’ behavior and their interaction with the members of the host country (society) and their source country (society). We found that when the stock of the immigrants in the host country increases, the immigrants' investment in the middlemen increases and the natives may bear the cost of link formation with the middlemen. |
| Keywords: | assimilation and separation, social networks, network formations |
| JEL: | D85 J15 F22 A14 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4234&r=mig |
| By: | Bergh, Andreas (Ratio & Lund University); Fink, Günther (Harvard School of Public Health) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the World Value Survey we examine first and second generation immigrants’ attitudes towards income inequality and redistribution. We find that first generation immigrants are on average less favorable to redistribution compared to non-immigrants. This effect is particularly pronounced in the Nordic welfare states, while in residual welfare states immigrants have stronger preferences for more government involvement, but not necessarily towards more redistribution. We find only marginal differences for second generation immigrants, suggesting a rather rapid adaptation of local norms and political preferences. |
| Keywords: | Immigration; redistribution; welfare state; attitudes |
| JEL: | H23 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0138&r=mig |
| By: | Matteo Barigozzi; Biagio Speciale |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the distribution of consumption expenditures for a large sample of documented and undocumented immigrants in Italy. Using the one-sided and two-sided Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, we show that the distribution of consumption of immigrants with higher permanence in the host country first-order stochastically dominates the one of immigrants with lower permanence. These distributions are first-order stochastically dominated by the ones of natives with similar characteristics. Apart from differences in the first years since migration, undocumented immigrants show similar consumption distributions to the ones of documented immigrants. All results also hold when correcting for possible immigrants’ misreporting on their legal status. |
| Keywords: | Distribution of consumption expenditures, immigrant’s legal status, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. |
| JEL: | D12 J10 C14 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eca:wpaper:2009_019&r=mig |
| By: | Ferrall, Christopher; Natalia, Mishagina |
| Abstract: | Based on a survey of graduating PhD students in the U.S., we study the determinants of location of their first jobs. We consider how locating in Canada versus the U.S. for all graduates is influenced by both their background and timeÂ-varying factors that affect international mobility. We also study the choice of European graduates between North America and returning to Europe. We find that in many cases macro factors have the expected effect of choices after controlling for biases for home, which depend upon background variables in expected ways. |
| Keywords: | Doctoral Education, International Mobility, Brain Drain |
| JEL: | J6 J44 I2 |
| Date: | 2009–06–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-33&r=mig |
| By: | Donald Siegel (School of Business University at Albany, SUNY); Stefan Krabel (Max Planck Institute of Economics Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group); Viktor Slavtchev (Max Planck Institute of Economics Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group) |
| Abstract: | We conjecture that the mobility of academic scientists increases the propensity of such agents to engage in academic entrepreneurship. Our empirical analysis is based on a survey of researchers at the Max Planck Society in Germany. We find that mobile scientists are more likely to become nascent entrepreneurs. Thus, it appears that citizenship and foreign-education are important determinants of the early stages of academic entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | Academic Entrepreneurship, Human Capital, Scientific Mobility, Knowledge Transfer, Immigrant Entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | L26 O31 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jms:wpaper:3&r=mig |
| By: | Sweetman, Arthur; Warman, Casey |
| Abstract: | We compare the economic outcomes of former Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) and former international students to immigrants who have no Canadian human capital at the time of landing. First, controlling for all possible variables that are adjustable under the current Canadian points system, we find that TFWs and students have better earning and employment outcomes, although by four years after landing, there is no difference between the employment outcomes of students or earnings of TFWs and workers with no pre-immigration Canadian human capital. Predicting the points that immigrants would obtain based on their observable human capital under the points system, each point increases earnings by around 2 percent and the probability of being employed by around half a percent. We also find that the predicted points of the respondent helps predict the earning and employment outcomes of the spouse. Next we examine the outcomes of immigrants based on entry class separately by gender. We find that both male and female Principal Applicants entering through the Skilled Worker program perform much better than immigrants entering through most of the other classes, although, for males, Principal Applicants entering under the Family Class are more likely to be employed at six months and two years after landing. Finally, restricting the sample to immigrants who were directly assessed based on economic criteria (Skilled Worker Principal Applicants), we discover that for males, immigrants who had previously worked in Canada as TFWs have much better outcomes in terms of entry earnings than immigrants who have no pre-Canadian experience at landing. Former international students experience an advantage in terms of hourly earnings, but much smaller than that experienced by TFWs, and students experience no earnings advantage in terms of weekly earnings. Overall, the evidence suggests that temporary foreign worker or student status does provide some signal of how well an immigrant will integrate economically. |
| Keywords: | Immigrants, Temporary Foreign Workers, International Students, Canada |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J31 J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2009–06–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-34&r=mig |
| By: | Rosalind S Hunter |
| Abstract: | They collect data on the movement and productivity of elite scientists. Their mobility is remarkable: nearly half of the world’s most-cited physicists work outside their country of birth. They show they migrate systematically towards nations with large R&D spending. Their study cannot adjudicate on whether migration improves scientists’ productivity, but we find that movers and stayers have identical h-index citations scores. Immigrants in the UK and US now win Nobel Prizes proportionately less often than earlier. US residents’ h-indexes are relatively high. They describe a framework where a key role is played by low mobility costs in the modern world.[IZA DP No. 4005] |
| Keywords: | mobility; science; brain drain; citations |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2048&r=mig |
| By: | Gibson, John; McKenzie, David |
| Abstract: | A unique survey which tracks worldwide the best and brightest academic performers from three Pacific countries is used to assess the extent of emigration and return migration among the very highly skilled, and to analyze, at the microeconomic level, the determinants of these migration choices. Although the estimates indicate that the income gains from migration are very large, not everyone migrates and many return. Within this group of highly skilled individuals, the emigration decision is found to be most strongly associated with preference variables such as risk aversion, patience, and choice of subjects in secondary school, and not strongly linked to either liquidity constraints or the gain in income to be had from migrating. Likewise, the decision to return is strongly linked to family and lifestyle reasons, rather than to the income opportunities in different countries. Overall the data show a relatively limited role for income maximization in distinguishing migration propensities among the very highly skilled, and point to the need to pay more attention to other components of the utility maximization decision. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Population Policies,Secondary Education,,Human Migrations&Resettlements |
| Date: | 2009–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4965&r=mig |
| By: | Mariapia Mendola (University of Milan Bicocca and LdA); Gero Carletto (the World Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of male-dominated international migration in shaping labor market outcomes by gender in migrant-sending households in Albania. Using detailed information on family migration experience from the latest Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) survey, we find that male and female labor supplies respond differently to current and past migration episodes of household members. Controlling for the potential endogeneity of migration and for the income (remittances) effect, estimates show that having a migrant abroad decreases female paid labor supply while increasing unpaid work. On the other hand, women with past family migration experience are significantly more likely to engage in self-employment and less likely to supply unpaid work. The same relationships do not hold for men. These findings suggest that over time male-dominated Albanian migration may lead to women’s empowerment in the access to income-earning opportunities at origin. |
| Keywords: | International Migration, Gender, Labor supply, Albania |
| JEL: | J22 J24 J16 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:272&r=mig |
| By: | Valentina Calderón (Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago); Ana María Ibáñez (Department of Economics, Universidad de los Andes) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the labor market effects of migration-related supply shocks. We exploit forced migration caused by the Colombian conflict as a natural experiment to examine the impact of exogenous labor supply shifts on labor outcomes. While migration flows are exogenously produced by conflict dynamics, location decisions might be positively correlated with demand shocks. An instrumental variables strategy allows us to correct for the possible attenuation bias generated by internally displaced populations locating in dynamic labor markets. Our results suggest that these immigration flows produce large negative impacts on the wages and employment opportunities of all workers, and are particularly large for low skill workers. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Labor Markets, Developing Countries |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcn:rwpapr:14&r=mig |
| By: | Giovanni Peri (UC Davis, CESifo and NBER); Francisco Requena (Universitat de Valencia) |
| Abstract: | There is abundant evidence that immigrants’ networks are associated with larger trade flows between countries of origin and the country (or province) where they settle. The causality of such relation and its magnitude, however, have not been proven beyond reasonable doubt. We use the simple predictions of the model by Chaney (2008) and treat networks of migrants as a device that reduces fixed bilateral trade costs. In so doing we have strong predictions on the effect of immigrants on total exports, exports by category of goods, and on the extensive and intensive margin of trade. We test these predictions using the remarkable and uneven increase of immigration to Spanish provinces between 1993 and 2008. The richness of our data, a panel of import and export by sector between 50 Spanish provinces and 77 countries over fifteen years, allows us to control for a very large set of covariates and fixed effects and to use an instrumental variable strategy so that we can isolate the trade-creation effect of new immigrants. We are also able to qualify the effect of immigration on bilateral trade of homogeneous and differentiated goods, and its impact on the intensive and extensive margin of trade. Our findings support all the implications of the Chaney model showing that migration network indeed seems to decrease the fixed costs of trade. Finally by decomposing the effect across provinces and over time we find evidence that the elasticity of trade creation to new immigrant is larger once a critical mass has been reached. |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:200915&r=mig |
| By: | Jacques Poot (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on migration between Australia and New Zealand, which has exhibited a strong, but cyclical, net movement towards Australia since the late 1960s. A long-term historical perspective is taken. Trans-Tasman migration is also compared with inter-island migration within New Zealand. It is argued that differential economic development, driven by forces of globalisation, agglomeration and technological change, has been primarily responsible for the long-run changes in the distribution of population across the regions of Australasia. Asynchronous business cycles, demographic dynamics, perceptions, return migration and the high international mobility of New Zealanders (of whom one quarter of those aged 40-64 have lived abroad for a year or longer) are responsible for the short-run fluctuations. However, permanent and long-term migration is only a small fraction of total trans-Tasman population movement. Moreover, trans-Tasman migration has not offset New Zealand’s ability to recruit population through immigration. Over the last three decades, the outflow of half a million New Zealand citizens has been compensated by a net inflow of three-quarter million citizens from elsewhere. The number of New Zealanders in Australia is expected to continue to grow but the migration flows become increasingly diversified. One-third of the New Zealanders in Australia re-migrates within four years. Future trends will depend on New Zealand’s ability to boost productivity growth, the real cost of air travel, retirement migration and the impacts of climate change. |
| Keywords: | Trans-Tasman migration, Australia, New Zealand, economic development |
| JEL: | F22 J61 N97 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:09_05&r=mig |
| By: | Max Friedrich Steinhardt (Centro Studi Luca D’Agliano (LdA) and Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI)) |
| Abstract: | The paper contributes to the ongoing debate about the adequate technique to identify the impact of immigration. Initially the regression analysis on the basis of education-experience cells reveals that the impact of immigration on native wages in Germany is negative, but small. The subsequent analysis on the basis of occupations using the same data yields a considerably higher adjustment coefficient and indicates strong wage effects within primary service occupations with a magnitude comparable to results for the US. The analysis therefore demonstrates that the use of formal qualifications as an exclusive classification criterion may lead to an underestimation of the impact of immigration. |
| Keywords: | Labour market impact of migration, skill group approach, occupations, fixed effects model |
| JEL: | C23 J15 J31 J42 J60 |
| Date: | 2009–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:273&r=mig |
| By: | Nakazawa, Katsuyoshi; Kawase, Akihiro |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:piecis:412&r=mig |
| By: | Marchiori, Luca (Catholic University of Louvain); Shen, I-Ling (University of Geneva); Docquier, Frédéric (Catholic University of Louvain) |
| Abstract: | The paper assesses the global effects of brain drain on developing economies and quantifies the relative sizes of various static and dynamic impacts. By constructing a unified generic framework characterized by overlapping-generations dynamics and calibrated to real data, this study incorporates many direct impacts of brain drain whose interactions, along with other indirect effects, are endogenously and dynamically generated. Our findings suggest that the short-run impact of brain drain on resident human capital is extremely crucial, as it does not only determine the number of skilled workers available to domestic production, but it also affects the sending economy's capacity to innovate or to adopt modern technologies. The latter impact plays an important role particularly in a globalized economy where capital investments are made in places with higher production efficiencies ceteris paribus. Hence, in spite of several empirically documented positive feedback effects, those countries with high skilled emigration rates are the most candid victims to brain drain since they are least likely to benefit from the "brain gain" effect, and thus suffering from declines of their resident human capital. |
| Keywords: | brain drain, capital flow, development, human capital, remittances |
| JEL: | F22 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4207&r=mig |
| By: | Maurer-Fazio, Margaret (Bates College); Connelly, Rachel (Bowdoin College); Lan, Chen (affiliation not available); Tang, Lixin (Bates College) |
| Abstract: | We employ data from the three most recent Chinese population censuses to consider married, urban women's labor force participation decisions in the context of their families and their residential locations. We are particularly interested in how the presence in the household of preschool and school-age children and/or the elderly and disabled affects women's likelihood of engaging in work outside the home. We find that the presence of older people in the household (any parent or parent-in-law and any person aged 75 or older) significantly increases prime-age urban women's likelihood of participating in market work and that presence of pre-school age children significantly decreases it. The negative effect on women's labor force participation of having young children in the household (compared to no children in the household) is substantially larger in magnitude for married, migrant women than for married, non-migrant urban residents. This appears to be explained, in part, by the practice of married, female migrants leaving their children in the care of relatives in rural areas in order to facilitate their employment. |
| Keywords: | labor force participation, China, childcare, eldercare, migrants, population census, urban women |
| JEL: | J11 J12 J13 J16 J22 O15 P23 R23 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4204&r=mig |
| By: | Thomas K. Bauer; Mathias G. Sinning |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the purpose of remittances using individual data of migrants in Germany. Particular attention is paid to migrants’ savings and transfers to family members in the home country. Our findings indicate that migrants who intend to stay in Germany only temporarily have a higher propensity to save and save larger amounts in their home country than permanent migrants. A similar picture emerges when considering migrants’ payments to family members abroad. The results of a decomposition analysis indicate that temporary and permanent migrants seem to have different preferences towards sending transfers abroad, while economic characteristics and the composition of households in home and host countries are less relevant. |
| Keywords: | International migration, savings, remittances |
| JEL: | F22 D12 D91 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0109&r=mig |
| By: | Kahanec, Martin (IZA); Zaiceva, Anzelika (IZA and University of Bologna); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (IZA, DIW Berlin and Bonn University) |
| Abstract: | The Eastern enlargement of the EU was an institutional impetus to the migration potential in Europe. While the overall numbers of migrants from the new member states in the EU15 increased between 2003 and 2007, this increase was distributed unevenly among countries. The proportion of these migrants in the EU15 remains smaller than that of non-EU27 migrants. The transitory arrangements may have diverted some migrants from the EU8 mainly to Ireland and the UK. Migrants from the EU2 continued to go predominantly to Italy and Spain. To date, there is no evidence that these primarily economic migrants would displace native workers or lower their wages (and even if crowding out happened in certain sectors or occupation, aggregate data suggest that such natives found well-paid jobs elsewhere), or that they would be more dependent on welfare than the natives. The drain of mainly young and skilled people could pose some additional demographic challenges on the source countries. However, the anticipated brain circulation may in fact help to solve their demographic and economic problems. While the ongoing economic crisis may change the momentum of several migration trajectories, free migration should in fact alleviate many consequences of the crisis and generally improve the allocative efficiency of EU labor markets. |
| Keywords: | free movement of workers, EU Eastern enlargement, effects of migration, migration |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4230&r=mig |
| By: | Simonetta Longhi (Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex, Colchester, UK); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam); Jacques Poot (Population Studies Centre, University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | A burgeoning literature has emerged during the last two decades to assess the economic impacts of immigration on host countries. In recent years much research has been at the national level under the assumption that impacts in open regions may dissipate through adjustment processes such as factor mobility. However, this is ultimately an empirical issue. In this paper we revisit the impacts of immigration at the regional level. We briefly review analytical approaches for identifying regional economic impacts, specifically the labour market impact. A meta-analytic approach is adopted. As a novel contribution to existing meta-analyses on labour market impacts, we use a simultaneous equations approach to the meta-analysis of wage and employment effects. The number of studies that informs on both effects is rather limited, but eight econometric analyses yielded 130 useful meta-observations. We find that wage rigidity increases the magnitude of the employment impact on the native born, particularly of those who are low skilled, following positive net immigration. The employment elasticity is also greater in Europe than in the United States. However, observed employment elasticities are not informative about whether larger or smaller wage effects may be expected. |
| Keywords: | international migration; regional labour market; meta-analysis; impact analysis; regional growth |
| JEL: | F22 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2009–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20090047&r=mig |
| By: | Santos Ruesga Benito (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid); Julimar da Silva Bichara (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid); Sandro Eduardo Monsueto (Curso de Ciencias Economicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás) |
| Abstract: | This article aims to present the main characteristics of Brazilian workers who work in the formal labor market in Spanish, using the new source of information from the Spanish Social Security. In general, Brazilians workers are occupied mainly in the construction sector, main motor of the Spanish economy in recent years, and in domestic services, for women case. Significant differences in wages are observed and an important percentage of temporary contracts in the Brazilians workforce, setting up a situation of increased insecurity at front fluctuations of the economy. Este artigo tem por objetivo apresentar as principais características dos trabalhadores brasileiros que atuam no mercado de trabalho formal espanhol, aproveitando a nova disponibilidade deste tipo de informações na Seguridade Social de Espanha. De modo geral, se observa que os brasileiros estão ocupados sobretudo na construção civil, principal motor da economia espanhola nos últimos anos, e nos serviços domésticos, no caso das mulheres. São observados importantes diferenciais de salários em comparação com a mão de obra espanhola e também uma significativa porcentagem de contratos temporais, configurando uma situação de maior precariedade frente ás oscilações da economia. |
| Keywords: | Brazilian Immigration, Spain, labor market |
| JEL: | J61 J21 |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ufb:wpaper:003&r=mig |