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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Ngoc Thi Minh Tran (University of Waikato); Michael P. Cameron (University of Waikato); Jacques Poot (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | International migrants are widely recognised as agents of institutional change in their home countries. However, the huge growth in temporary migration in recent years demands a fresh investigation of this phenomenon. Theoretically, a country’s diaspora constitutes one of the four principal channels through which international migration may alter development. A core factor enabling the transnational influence of diasporas is their retained connection to home countries, which is plausibly contingent on the duration-of-stay in the host countries. This paper exploits the Database on Immigrants in OECD Countries to investigate the influence of diasporas living in OECD countries on institutional quality in their home countries, and takes into account the heterogeneity of diasporas’ duration-of-stay composition. Instead of simply using immigrant numbers to measure the diaspora size, we calculate institutional-quality-adjusted immigrant stocks to allow for variations in institutional quality between host countries. Additionally, we utilize duration-of-stay in the host country as an indicator of the strength of interaction with the home country. Our cross-sectional and panel analyses find a significant positive impact of diasporas living in OECD countries on institutional quality in home countries. Remarkably, the diffusion of advanced institutions from developed host countries to home countries through the international migration channel is stronger with diasporas characterized by shorter duration-of-stay, that is, with those who may be expected to still have stronger links with the home country. |
| Keywords: | institutional quality; international migration; diaspora; duration-of-stay |
| JEL: | F22 O15 |
| Date: | 2017–08–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:17/17&r=mig |
| By: | Gaurav Khanna (Center for Global Development); Nicolas Morales (University of Michigan) |
| Abstract: | With the majority of all H-1B visas going to Indians, we study how US immigration policy coupled with the internet boom affected both the US and Indian economies, and in particular both countries’ IT sectors. The H-1B scheme led to a tech boom in both countries, inducing substantial gains in firm productivity and consumer welfare in both the United States and India. We find that the US-born workers gained $431 million in 2010 as a result of the H-1B scheme. In India, the H-1B program induced Indians to switch to computer science (CS) occupations, increasing the CS workforce and raising overall IT output in India by 5 percent. Indian students enrolled in engineering schools to gain employment in the rapidly growing US IT industry via the H-1B visa program. Those who could not join the US workforce, due to the H-1B cap, remained in India, and along with return-migrants, enabled the growth of an Indian IT sector, which led to the outsourcing of some production to India. The migration and rise in Indian exports induced a small number of US workers to switch to non-CS occupations, with distributional impacts. Our general equilibrium model captures firm-hiring across various occupations, innovation and technology diffusion, and dynamic worker decisions to choose occupations and fields of major in both the United States and India. Supported by a rich descriptive analysis of the changes in the 1990s and 2000s, we match data moments and show that our model captures levels and trends of key variables in validation tests. We perform counter-factual exercises and find that on average, workers in each country are better off because of high-skill migration. |
| Keywords: | High-skill immigration, H-1B visas, India, computer scientists, IT sector |
| JEL: | I25 J30 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:460&r=mig |
| By: | Lorenzo Caliendo; Luca David Opromolla; Fernando Parro; Alessandro Sforza |
| Abstract: | The economic effects from labor market integration are crucially affected by the extent to which countries are open to trade. In this paper we build a multi-country dynamic general equilibrium model with trade in goods and labor mobility across countries to study and quantify the economic effects of trade and labor market integration. In our model trade is costly and features households of different skills and nationalities facing costly forward-looking relocation decisions. We use the EU Labour Force Survey to construct migration flows by skill and nationality across 17 countries for the period 2002-2007. We then exploit the timing variation of the 2004 EU enlargement to estimate the elasticity of migration flows to labor mobility costs, and to identify the change in labor mobility costs associated to the actual change in policy. We apply our model and use these estimates, as well as the observed changes in tariffs, to quantify the effects from the EU enlargement. We find that new member state countries are the largest winners from the EU enlargement, and in particular unskilled labor. We find smaller welfare gains for EU-15 countries. However, in the absence of changes to trade policy, the EU-15 would have been worse off after the enlargement. We study even further the interaction effects between trade and migration policies and the role of different mechanisms in shaping our results. Our results highlight the importance of trade for the quantification of the welfare and migration effects from labor market integration. |
| Keywords: | international trade, factor mobility, market integration, EU enlargement, welfare |
| JEL: | F16 F22 F13 J61 R13 E24 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1494&r=mig |
| By: | Miguel Flores; Alexander Patt; Jens Ruhose; Simon Wiederhold |
| Abstract: | We present the first evidence that international emigrant selection on education and earnings materializes through occupational skills. Combining novel data from a representative Mexican task survey with rich individual-level worker data, we find that Mexican migrants to the United States have higher manual skills and lower cognitive skills than non-migrants. Conditional on occupational skills, education and earnings no longer predict migration decisions. Differential labor-market returns to occupational skills explain the observed selection pattern and significantly outperform previously used returns-to-skills measures in predicting migration. Results are persistent over time and hold within narrowly defined regional, sectoral, and occupational labor markets. |
| Keywords: | occupational skills, emigrant selection |
| JEL: | F22 O15 J61 J24 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cid:wpfacu:84a&r=mig |
| By: | Bensassi, Sami; Jabbour, Liza |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the effect of return migration on the performance of Egyptian household firms. A growing body of evidence suggests that return migrants are more likely to become and remain entrepreneurs (Marchetta, 2012; Wahba and Zenou, 2012). The length of the miration spell, the experience and the capital accumulated overseas may influence the ability of return migrants to establish and successfully manage their firms. We expand this literature by examining the impact of return migrants on the revenue of the business units they manage. We control for several layers of selection bias, from the migration decision to the pursuit of entrepreneurial activities. Our findings suggest that two determinants of firms' revenues favour return migrants: larger starting capital and the experience accumulated abroad. These results suggest that economic policies directed at attracting return migrants should consider expanding support schemes formerly limited to the most educated migrants or to some sectors of activity as the positive impact of return migration on entrepreneurial revenues is widespread. |
| Keywords: | Return Migration,Household firms |
| JEL: | F22 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:98&r=mig |
| By: | Morelli, Massimo; Negri, Margherita |
| Abstract: | When exposed to similar migration flows, countries with different institutional systems may respond with different levels of openness. We study in particular the different responses determined by different electoral systems. We find that Winner Take All countries would tend to be more open than countries with PR when all other policies are kept constant, but, crucially, if we consider the endogenous differences in redistribution levels across systems, then the openness ranking may switch. |
| Keywords: | Median voter; migration; Occupational choice; Proportional representation; taxation; Walls |
| JEL: | D72 F22 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12212&r=mig |
| By: | Cho, Cheol-Joo |
| Abstract: | In this paper, two migratory impact-assessment schemes are constructed within the framework of Ghoshian and Leontief input-output analysis. These schemes are designed to estimate the rural-to-urban migration-induced and the urban-to-rural migration-induced effects on interurban migration, where the former effect is termed the replacement effect, while the latter the attraction effect. The established input-output schemes are empirically applied to the 2012 data on interregional migration in Korea. The results show that an arrival of migrants to and/or a departure of residents from the 20 largest cities in Korea induce direct and indirect ripples of population flow between those cities. A combination of the displacement and the attraction effects yields a classification of cities by which the 20 largest cities are grouped into four different types. |
| Keywords: | interregional migration,displacement effect,attraction effect,input-output schemes,classification of cities,largest cities in Korea |
| JEL: | D57 R15 R23 R58 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201749&r=mig |
| By: | Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina; Puttitanun, Thitima |
| Abstract: | The surge in unaccompanied minor crossings between 2011 and 2014 led to an overwhelming increase in the number of juvenile deportation proceedings, which coincided with a peak in intensified immigration enforcement at the state and local levels. Using data on juvenile deportation proceedings, we examine how tougher immigration enforcement might have influenced judicial rulings on these cases and, ultimately, these youths’ ability to stay in the country. We find that the average increase in immigration enforcement over that period is associated with a 15 percent reduction in the share of juvenile cases ending with permission to stay. The result underscores the importance of the immigration policy context in which courts operate on their rulings, even if immigration law is within the jurisdiction of the Federal government. Given the gravity of the circumstances these children are escaping, further attention to how the piecemeal approach to immigration enforcement might impact the protection of their humanitarian rights is warranted. |
| Keywords: | Interior immigration enforcement,unaccompanied minors,juvenile deportation proceedings,United States |
| JEL: | F22 Z18 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:99&r=mig |
| By: | David N. Figlio; Umut Özek |
| Abstract: | The world is experiencing the second largest refugee crisis in a century, and one of the major points of contention involves the possible adverse effects of incoming refugees on host communities. We examine the effects of a large refugee influx into Florida public schools following the Haitian earthquake of 2010 using unique matched birth and schooling records. We find precise zero estimated effects of refugees on the educational outcomes of incumbent students in the year of the earthquake or in the two years that follow, regardless of the socioeconomic status, grade level, ethnicity, or birthplace of incumbent students. |
| JEL: | I20 J10 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23661&r=mig |