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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Adsera, Alicia (Princeton University); Ferrer, Ana (University of Calgary) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine the fertility experience of immigrants during their first years in Canada. Fertility decisions at the time of arrival may be crucial in determining immigrants' economic assimilation into the new country, as households with infants usually face large expenses and are constrained in the amount of time they can supply to the labour market. Using the confidential files of the Canadian Census of Population for the years 1991 through 2006 we look at native born-immigrant differentials in new births up to five years after migration. We find evidence of a relatively rapid growth in births during this initial period compared to both similar natives and migrants themselves during the two years before the move. To what extent the presence of infants in immigrant households converges to the levels of the native-born during the early migration years differs greatly by broad area of origin. |
| Keywords: | immigrant fertility, fertility disruption, recent immigrants, Canada |
| JEL: | J11 J13 J15 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7289&r=mig |
| By: | Anzelika Zaiceva; Klaus F. Zimmermann |
| Abstract: | The eastern enlargements of the EU in 2004 and 2007 have stimulated the mobility of workers from the new EU8 and EU2 countries. A significant proportion of these migrants stayed abroad only temporarily, and the Great recession may have triggered return intentions. However, a return may be postponed if the economic situation in a sending region is persistently worse. This paper documents emerging evidence on return migration in post-enlargement Europe combining several data sources to describe the characteristics and selection of the returnees, as well as the determinants of return migration and potential re-migration decisions. The findings suggest that brain circulation rather than brain drain is relevant for several new member states and that returnees are most likely to migrate again. Moreover, the proportion of potential movers is larger in countries most affected by the crisis. Repeat and circular migration is expected to alleviate the potential negative impacts of the crisis, leading to a more efficient allocation of resources within the enlarged EU |
| Keywords: | return migration, EU Eastern enlargement, economic crisis; |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:recent:089&r=mig |
| By: | Caponi, Vincenzo (Ryerson University); Plesca, Miana (University of Guelph) |
| Abstract: | We combine the New Immigrant Survey (NIS), which contains information on US legal immigrants, with the American Community Survey (ACS), which contains information on legal and illegal immigrants to the U.S. Using econometric methodology proposed by Lancaster and Imbens (1996) we compute the probability for each observation in the ACS data to refer to an illegal immigrant, conditional on observed characteristics. The results for illegal versus legal immigrants are novel, since no other work has quantified the characteristics of illegal immigrants from a random sample. We find that, compared to legal immigrants, illegal immigrants are more likely to be less educated, males, and married with their spouse not present. These results are heterogeneous across education categories, country of origin (Mexico) and whether professional occupations are included or not in the analysis. Forecasts for the distribution of legal and illegal characteristics match aggregate imputations by the Department of Homeland Security. We find that, while illegal immigrants suffer a wage penalty compared to legal immigrants, returns to higher education remain large and positive. |
| Keywords: | legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, contaminated controls |
| JEL: | J15 F22 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7304&r=mig |
| By: | Kahanec, Martin (Central European University); Fabo, Brian (Central European Labour Studies Institute) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the migration response of the youth from new EU member states to disparate conditions in an enlarged European Union at the onset of the Great Recession. We use the Eurobarometer data and probabilistic econometric models to identify the key drivers of the intention to work in another member state of European Economic Area (EEA) and their expected duration. We find that migration intentions are high among those not married and among males with children, but both categories are also overrepresented among people with only temporary as opposed to long-term or permanent migration plans. Whereas age affects migration intentions negatively, education has no effect on whether working abroad is envisaged. However, conditional on envisaging to work abroad, completion of education (if after 16th birthday) is associated with long-term (at least five years), but not permanent, migration plans. Finally, we find that socio-demographic variables explain about as much variation of migration intentions as self-reported push and pull factors and migration constraints. |
| Keywords: | migration, EU labor markets, youth, EU enlargement, labor mobility, free movement of workers, transitional arrangements, new member states, European Union |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7285&r=mig |
| By: | Kim, Jungho (Ajou University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of inflows of foreign workers on Korean natives' economic performance – namely, employment – through the Employment Permit System, the basis of Korea's system by which to introduce low-skilled immigrants. Using National Employment Insurance data, analyses reveal that the adjustment cost related to the introduction of foreign workers was not substantial over the 2004-2005 period. However, a substitution effect exists between the employment of foreign and native workers in the service industry and among less-educated natives. The results suggest that policy assistance is needed to lessen the impacts caused by inflows of foreign workers and to enhance adjustments within the labor market on a sector-by-sector basis. |
| Keywords: | employment permit system, low-skilled immigrants, employment of natives, adjustment costs |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J63 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7287&r=mig |
| By: | Cattaneo, Cristina (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)); Fiorio, Carlo V. (University of Milan); Peri, Giovanni (University of California, Davis) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we use a dataset that follows a representative sample of native Europeans, resident of 11 countries, over the period 1995-2001, in order to identify the effect of inflows of immigrants on their career, employment, location and wage. We use the 1991 distribution of immigrants by nationality across European labor markets to construct an imputed inflow of the foreign-born population that is exogenous to local demand shocks. We also control for a series of fixed effects that absorb individual, country-year and sector-year effects. We find that native Europeans are more likely to upgrade their occupation to one associated with higher skills and better pay, when a larger number of immigrants enter their labor market. They are also more likely to start a self-employment activity. As a consequence of this upward mobility their income increases or stays the same in response to immigration. We find no evidence of an increased likelihood to leave employment or to leave their region of residence. These effects take place within 2 years and some persist over 4 years. Hence it appears that immigrants push native European workers on a faster career track rather than reducing their employment opportunities. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, job upgrading, mobility, self-employment, Europe |
| JEL: | J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7282&r=mig |
| By: | Carmen Camacho (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | We develop a model economy adapting Hotelling's migration law to make individuals react to the gradient of their indirect utility. In a first version, individuals respond uniquely to utility differences. In a second phase, we insert our migration law as a dynamic constraint in a spatial model of economic growth in which a policy maker maximizes overall welfare. In both cases we prove the existence of a unique solution under certain assumptions and for each initial distribution of human capital. We illustrate some extremely interesting properties of the economy and the associated population dynamics through numerical simulations. In the decentralized case in which a region enjoys a temporal technological advantage, an agglomeration in human capital emerges in the central area, which does not coincide with the technologically advanced area. In the complete model, initial differences in human capital can trigger everlasting inequalities in physical capital. |
| Keywords: | Migration; spatial dynamics; economic growth; parabolic PDE; optimal control |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00801109&r=mig |
| By: | Ekrame Boubtane (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I); Dramane Coulibaly (EconomiX - CNRS : UMR7166 - Université Paris X - Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense); Christophe Rault (LEO - Laboratoire d'économie d'Orleans - CNRS : UMR6221 - Université d'Orléans) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the causality relationship between immigration, unemployment and economic growth of the host country. We employ the panel Granger causality testing approach of Kónya (2006) that is based on SUR systems and Wald tests with country specific bootstrap critical values. This approach allows to test for Granger-causality on each individual panel member separately by taking into account the contemporaneous correlation across countries. Using annual data over the 1980-2005 period for 22 OECD countries, we find that, only in Portugal, unemployment negatively causes immigration, while in any country, immigration does not cause unemployment. On the other hand, our results show that, in four countries (France, Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom), growth positively causes immigration, whereas in any country, immigration does not cause growth. |
| Keywords: | Immigration; growth; unemployment; Granger causality |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00800970&r=mig |
| By: | Nicodemo, Catia (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper of this paper is to explore the immigration and productivity in Spain. We estimate the effect of immigration on labor productivity from 2004 until 2008 for Spain. Using firms (SABI) and individuals data (Social Security Records) we calculate the effect by sector and municipality for the two big Spanish provinces that have received most immigrants in the last decade: Barcelona and Madrid. After controlling for endogeneity of immigration, the results demonstrate that immigration have a negative effect on productivity. Education and occupation are both variables with a positive effect on productivity, while permanent, public or full time contracts do not have any effect. Type of immigration, Europeans 15 (more skill) versus no European, is not relevant in explain the negative productivity. This fact is due that firms are very heterogenous across them and use their employees under their real production potential. |
| Keywords: | immigration, labor productivity, Spain, MCVL, SABI |
| JEL: | F22 J61 R11 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7297&r=mig |
| By: | Tani, Massimiliano (Macquarie University, Sydney); Manuguerra, Maurizio (Macquarie University, Sydney) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of labour migration and openness to trade on regional skill endowments across the European Union at a time of increased economic integration. Using regional data from Eurostat's Regio database and the open web source Openflight for the period 1998-2010 we test whether the spatial concentration of skills has increased or decreased over time. We account for neighboring effects associated with both geographic proximity and links through civilian flights using a random spatial effect model. We find that migration contributes to convergence in regional skill endowments across member states, particularly at the Southern and Eastern periphery of the European Union. We also find that inter-regional connectivity through civilian flights has much stronger effects on the evolution of a region's skill endowment than geographic contiguity. |
| Keywords: | European Union, migration, skill endowments, convergence, spatial connectivity |
| JEL: | F20 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7292&r=mig |
| By: | Eliasson, Tove (Department of Economics, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | This article uses a matched employer-employee panel data of the Swedish labor market to study immigrant wage assimilation, decomposing the wage catch-up into parts which can be attributed to relative wage growth within and between workplaces and occupations. This study shows that failing to control for selection into employment when studying wage assimilation of immigrants is very likely to under-estimate wage catch-up. The results further show that both poorly and highly educated immigrants catch up through relative wage growth within workplaces and occupations, suggesting that employer-specic learning plays an important role for the wage catch-up. The highly educated suffers from not benefiting from occupational mobility as much as the natives do. This could be interpreted as a lack of access to the full range of occupations, possibly explained by difficulties in signaling specific skills. |
| Keywords: | Firm sorting; occupational mobility; wage assimilation; host country specific human capital; employer learning |
| JEL: | D22 D31 J01 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2013–03–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2013_007&r=mig |
| By: | Herbst, Mikolaj; Rok, Jakub |
| Abstract: | According to economic theory, supported by rich empirical evidence, the ability of an economy to accumulate a high quality human capital is an important factor of economic growth. Since economies better endowed with human capital grow at a higher rate, the mobility of skilled individuals should have a meaningful effect on the economic perspectives of different countries and regions. In this paper we attempt to systematise the existing literature on the impact that human capital mobility has on economic growth and some other aspects of regional development, in order to better understand the channels through which this impact is accomplished and the significance of the observed effects. We complement it with a typology of drivers of highly skilled migration and, finally, we focus on policy efforts at the regional level that aim at raising the human capital level in a region. |
| Keywords: | human capital, migration, regional development |
| JEL: | I25 I28 J6 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:45755&r=mig |
| By: | Nuno Carlos Leitão (Polytechnic Institute of Santarém and CEFGAGE, University of Èvora, Portugal) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between intra-industry trade (IIT) and immigration flows using a gravity model for the period 2000-2010 between Portugal and European Union’s Member States (EU-27). The present study uses the methodology of Kandogan (2003) for separating IIT into its components horizontal (HIIT) and vertical intra-industry trade (VIIT). Using a panel data approach, our study find that immigration has a positive influence on Portuguese intra-industry trade. These results indicate that the immigration can reduce transaction costs between home and host country. We also consider in econometric model, the economic dimension which appears to exercise a positive effect on IIT. Our results confirm the hypothesis that there is a negative effect of transportation costs on trade. |
| Keywords: | Gravity Model, Horizontal and Vertical Intra-industry Trade Immigration and Panel Data |
| JEL: | C20 C30 F12 L10 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2013.20&r=mig |
| By: | Ahlin, Lina (CIRCLE, Lund University); Andersson, Martin (CIRCLE, Lund University); Thulin, Per (Royal Institute of Technology and Swedish Entrepreneurship Forum) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the influence of market thickness for skills on initial wages and subsequent wage development of university graduates. Using Swedish micro-level panel data on a cohort of graduates, we show that two out of three graduates move to large cities upon graduation. Large cities yield higher rewards to human capital and a stronger early job market career. The premium on initial wages for urban graduates is in the interval of 6-12 percent, and we estimate a wage-growth premium of about 3 percent. Thicker markets for skills appear as a key reason for the concentration of university graduates to larger cities. |
| Keywords: | human capital; university graduates; urban wage premium; market thickness; matching; agglomeration economies; migration; job switching |
| JEL: | J31 J61 R10 R12 |
| Date: | 2013–02–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2013_002&r=mig |
| By: | Yuliya Demyanyk; Dmytro Hryshko; María José Luengo Luengo-Prado; Bent Sorensen |
| Abstract: | Using credit report data from two of the three major credit bureaus in the United States, we infer with high certainty whether households move to other labor markets defined by metropolitan areas. We estimate how moving patterns relate to labor market conditions, personal credit, and homeownership using panel regressions with fixed effects which control for all constant individual-specific traits. We interpret the patterns through simulations of a dynamic model of consumption, housing, and location choice. We find that homeowners with negative home equity move more than other homeowners, in particular when local unemployment growth is high overall, negative home equity is not an important barrier to labor mobility. |
| Keywords: | Labor mobility ; Households - Economic aspects ; Consumer credit ; Labor mobility |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwp:1305&r=mig |