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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Min Fang (Department of Economics, University of Florida); Libin Han (Dongbei University of Finance and Economics); Zibin Huang (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics); Ming Lu (Shanghai Jiaotong University); Li Zhang (Sun Yat-Sen University) |
| Abstract: | Place-based land policies may create spatial misallocation. We investigate a major policy in China that aims to reduce regional development gaps by distributing more urban construction land quotas to underdeveloped inland regions. We first show causal evidence that this policy decreased firm-level TFP in more developed eastern regions relative to inland regions. We then build a spatial equilibrium model with migration, land constraints, and agglomeration. The model reveals that this policy led to substantial losses in national TFP and output. It shrinks regional output gap but lowers incomes of workers from underdeveloped regions by hindering their migration to developed regions. |
| JEL: | O18 R58 E24 J61 R52 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ufl:wpaper:002002&r=mig |
| By: | Bansak, Cynthia; Dziadula, Eva; Zavodny, Madeline |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of having a clear path to lawful permanent resident status, or a "green card, " and naturalized citizenship on marital status and spousal characteristics among Chinese immigrants in the United States. A series of U.S. policy changes in the early 1990s made all mainland Chinese immigrants already present in the country eligible for a green card. We examine the effect of those policy changes on Chinese immigrants' marriage market outcomes relative to other East Asian immigrants. Using 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census data, we find that the share of Chinese immigrants who are married increased after they became automatically eligible for a green card. In particular, highly educated Chinese immigrants became relatively more likely to be married with a spouse living with them and relatively less likely to be married with a spouse living elsewhere. This pattern suggests that some Chinese spouses immigrated after their husband or wife received legal status, or spousal chain migration occurred. We also find that highly educated Chinese immigrants benefited in the marriage market in terms of spousal education and earnings, but less-educated Chinese immigrants did not. Meanwhile, less-educated Chinese-born women became relatively more likely to marry a U.S. native. |
| Keywords: | immigration, marriage markets, assortative matching, legal status, China |
| JEL: | J12 J15 K37 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1233&r=mig |
| By: | Leonard Le Roux (Sciences Po Department of Economics); Johanna Choumert-Nkolo (EDI Global) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a first analysis of the relationship between rural-urban migration and energy poverty in South Africa, and to the authors' knowledge in Africa, using a nationally representative panel dataset. Using a dynamic difference in differences approach, energy poverty changes for both migrants and non-migrants are tracked over a ten-year period from 2008 to 2017. On average, moving to urban areas results in reductions in energy poverty for migrants themselves, with especially dramatic reductions in the use of traditional cooking fuels. Roughly one in five new urban arrivals move into informal shack dwellings where initial gains in energy access are negligible, but even for these migrants, the gains from migration grow over time. Effects on households, differences between male and female migrants, and other amenitities are also explored. |
| Keywords: | Energy Poverty, Migration, Urbanization, Panel data |
| JEL: | Q41 N50 D10 O15 |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fae:wpaper:2023.01&r=mig |
| By: | Ahrens, Achim (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin); Beerli, Andreas (ETH Zurich); Hangartner, Dominik (Stanford University); Kurer, Selina (ETH Zurich); Siegenthaler, Michael (ETH Zurich) |
| Abstract: | Refugees, and immigrants more generally, often do not have access to all jobs in the labor market. We argue that restrictions on employment opportunities help explain why immigrants have lower employment and wages than native citizens. To test this hypothesis, we leverage refugees' exogenous geographic assignment in Switzerland, within-canton variation in labor market restrictions, and linked register data 1999–2016. We document large negative employment and earnings effects of banning refugees from working in the first months after arrival, from working in certain sectors and regions, and from prioritizing residents over refugees. Consistent with an effect of outside options on wages, removing 10% of jobs reduces refugees' hourly wages by 2.8% and increases the wage gap to similar host-country citizens in similar jobs by 2.2%. Furthermore, we show that restrictions reduce refugees' earnings even after they cease applying. Restrictions do not spur refugee emigration nor improve earnings of non-refugee immigrants. |
| Keywords: | labor market integration, migration, labor market policies, labor market institutions, monopsony, refugees, employment, wages, outside options, employment opportunities |
| JEL: | J08 J31 J42 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15901&r=mig |
| By: | Parent-Chartier, Clothilde; Santamaria, Neal; Van Haren, Ian |
| Abstract: | This chapter explores the involvement of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the collective sponsorship of refugees in Quebec. By focusing on organizations with significant experience in facilitating and supporting sponsorships, the authors investigate their roles and some of the challenges they face. The authors provide an overview of key actors in collective sponsorship and explain five key roles within the collective sponsorship ecosystem, showing that the role of private sponsors goes beyond basic service delivery as they play different roles such as mediators, advocates for refugee rights and initiators of policy changes. Then, they highlight recent developments in Quebec and discuss the specific challenges faced by organizations involved in collective sponsorship including how the government has regulated and constrained sponsorship efforts. The authors conclude by identifying how increased collaboration between CSOs and the government could improve the sponsorship program. |
| Date: | 2023–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:em6z2&r=mig |
| By: | Akira Sasahara (Faculty of Economics, Keio University); Yumin Sui (Faculty of Economics, Keio University (Student)); Emily Taguchi (Department of Economics, University of Cologne (Student)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of globalization?measured by an increase in immigration and in imports from China?on labor market outcomes in Japan. We attempt to identify the causal links using a shift-share instrument based on previous settlement patterns of migrants for immigration shocks, and the one based on previous spatial allocation of sectoral employment for import shocks. The results suggest limited impact of these variables on wages, however, significant effects are found in the late 1990s, suggesting their interactions with Japan fs Lost Decade. |
| Keywords: | immigration, China trade shock, wages, Japan |
| JEL: | F16 F22 F66 |
| Date: | 2023–02–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2023-002&r=mig |
| By: | Jelnov, Pavel (Leibniz University of Hannover) |
| Abstract: | This paper takes advantage of a natural experiment, in which Soviet Jewish immigrants were quasi-randomly allocated of to the U.S. and Israel. I find that young women who immigrated as children follow similar fertility profiles in the two host countries. In Israel, they are also similar to native-born women by exercising almost no selection into motherhood and postnatal labor force participation. By contrast, and away from native-born American women, immigrants to the U.S. either combine family and career or become low-educated non-working mothers. This non-trivial segregation arises from a combination of the American Dream with origin-determined fertility norms. |
| Keywords: | immigration, Soviet Jews, female labor force participation, immigrant fertility |
| JEL: | J13 J61 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15847&r=mig |
| By: | Portes, Jonathan (King's College London); Springford, John (Centre for European Reform) |
| Abstract: | The end of free movement and the introduction of the post-Brexit migration system represents a major structural change to the UK labour market. We provide a descriptive assessment of the impact on a sectoral basis. We examine how overall labour force growth has differed between sectors, both overall and in terms of the extent to which this growth was driven by migrant workers, both from the EU and from outside the EU, prior to the pandemic. This allows us to construct counterfactuals, which we contrast with observed outturns, as well as with data on visas issued by sector under the new system. Our analysis suggests that, although migration overall is currently running at least at pre-pandemic levels, the post-Brexit migration system has produced, as designed, a clear break with pre-Brexit trends, reducing labour supply for some sectors. There remains a substantial "shortfall" in migration for work, even taking of the impact of the pandemic. However, these impacts differ very considerably between sectors. In lower-skilled sectors, work-related migration under free movement does not appear to have been replaced by additional visa issuance under the new system. Meanwhile, in higher skilled sectors, increased visa issuance has increased, and does appear to be consistent with levels of migration that are broadly in line with pre-pandemic, pre-Brexit trends. |
| Keywords: | migration, labour markets, Brexit |
| JEL: | F22 J48 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15883&r=mig |
| By: | Štěpán Mikula (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic); Tommaso Reggiani (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff, United Kingdom, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy); Fabio Sabatini (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, IZA, Bonn, Germany) |
| Abstract: | We exploit a historical experiment that occurred in Czechoslovakia after World War Two to study the drivers of social capital accumulation in an extremely unfa- vorable environment. Between 1945 and 1948, the Sudetenland became the scene of ethnic cleansing, with the expulsion of nearly three million German speakers and the simultaneous influx of nearly two million resettlers. Focusing on the areas where at least 90% of the population was forced to leave, we show that the municipalities hosting a church built before 1945 developed significantly higher social capital under the communist rule, which persisted after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and the current days. |
| Keywords: | Institutions, migration, conflict, social capital, religion, transition countries |
| JEL: | D74 L31 N24 N44 N94 O15 Z12 |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mub:wpaper:2023-03&r=mig |
| By: | Luca Pieroni; Melcior Rosselló Roig; Luca Salmasi (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Gilberto Turati (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of granting legal status to immigrant women on voluntary abortions. We exploit the 2007 EU enlargement as an exogenous shock to legal status for Romanian and Bulgarian women, considering Italy as a destination country. Using a standard Difference-in-Differences model, we estimate a decline between 60% and 70% in voluntary pregnancy termination (VPT) rates for the new EU citizens from the two Eastern countries. We also introduce a novel framework to separate the total effect of the enlargement into a “citizenship” effect due to (legal or illegal) migrants already present in Italy and a “selection” effect due to new flows of immigrants. We show that the findings are robust to several alternative explanations. The drop in abortions points to legal status as a way to empower immigrant women. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Abortions, Legal status, EU Enlargement. |
| JEL: | F22 K37 I12 J13 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def126&r=mig |
| By: | Diaz, Antonia; Jáñez, Álvaro (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); Wellschmied, Felix (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) |
| Abstract: | When mobility between locations is frictional, a person's economic well-being is partially determined by her place of birth. Using a life cycle model of mobility, we find that search frictions are the main impairment to the mobility of young people in Spain, and these frictions are particularly strong in economically distressed locations. As a result, being born in a high-unemployment urban area carries with it a large welfare penalty. Less stable jobs, slower skill accumulation, lower average wages, and fewer possibilities for geographic mobility all contribute to these welfare losses. Paying transfers to people in distressed economic locations decreases these welfare losses without large adverse effects on mobility. In contrast, several policies that encourage people to move to low-unemployment urban areas increase these welfare losses and fail to meaningfully increase mobility towards these more successful locations. |
| Keywords: | mobility, local labor markets, search frictions, life cycle, dynamic spatial models |
| JEL: | E20 E24 E60 J21 J61 J63 J64 J68 R23 R31 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15896&r=mig |
| By: | Ali Ubaid (TREE - Transitions Energétiques et Environnementales - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Mazhar Mughal (TREE - Transitions Energétiques et Environnementales - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, ESC PAU - Ecole Supérieure de Commerce, Pau Business School); Lionel de Boisdeffre (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE)) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates how the receipt and amount of domestic or international transfers influences household decisions regarding farm investment and the selection of capital and labor-intensive crops. We develop a conceptual framework to postulate that even though recipient households may have the possibility to employ the additional income to raise their agricultural investment, the investment falls in the short run if labor constraints arising from the migrant member's absence are binding and capital accumulation is suboptimal. Employing a set of endogenous treatment estimations, we empirically test this hypothesis on data on 5, 636 rural households from Pakistan. Our findings show a substantial difference between recipient and nonrecipient households in terms of their economic behavior. Recipient households make 99.64% less agricultural investment and obtain 82% less production compared to non-recipient households. The estimates are found to be robust when tested with alternate empirical techniques Heckman Selection and matching. The impact is stronger in case of households which receive domestic transfers, with 99.87% less farm investment and 77% less production than non-recipient households. Remittances result in a decrease in production of both capitaland labor-intensive crops, reflecting a decline in overall farm activity. Similar farm investment and cropping patterns are observed relative to the amount of remittances received. The results are robust to different model specifications and estimation procedures. |
| Keywords: | Migration Remittances Agriculture Investment Cropping Patterns Instrumental Variable PSM., Migration, Remittances, Agriculture Investment, Cropping Patterns, Instrumental Variable |
| Date: | 2023–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03930637&r=mig |
| By: | Alessio Ciarlone (Banca d'Italia) |
| Abstract: | Defying expectations, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries withstood the shock related to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Relying on detailed data for a large panel of remittance-receiving economies, this paper explores the key drivers of remittance outflows from Italy and finds empirical support to plausible explanations for their resilience during the pandemic. The impulse response functions obtained via a local projection approach confirm the paramount role of remittances as automatic stabilizers. Notwithstanding a reduction in their personal incomes due to the recession in Italy, migrant workers stepped up their financial support to their families back home to cushion the impact of the pandemic. In this regard, a shift from informal to formal remittance channels played a significant role. More specifically, the acceleration in the digitalization of financial services during, and because of, the pandemic had important spillover effects on migrants’ remittances, thus overcoming the hurdles created by the COVID-related restrictions adopted in both the sending and the receiving countries. |
| Keywords: | Remittances, COVID-19, local projections, digitalisation, mobile money, informality |
| JEL: | F24 I10 O11 |
| Date: | 2023–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1402_23&r=mig |
| By: | Nicodemo, Catia (University of Oxford); Orso, Cristina E. (University of Insubria); Tealdi, Cristina (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh) |
| Abstract: | The UK imports many doctors from abroad, where medical training and experience might be different. This study attempts to understand how drug prescription behaviour differs in English GP practices which have larger or smaller numbers of foreign-trained GPs. Results show that in general practices with a high share of GPs trained outside the UK, prescriptions for antibiotics, mental health medication, analgesics and antacids are higher, controlling for the characteristics of the patients and the practices. However, we find no evidence of any significant impact of such different prescribing behaviour neither on patients' satisfaction nor on unplanned hospitalisations, pointing to this behaviour being due to over-prescribing. Identifying differences in prescribing habits among GPs is paramount to identifying the policies best able to guarantee consistent services across GP practices and the consequent reduction of health inequalities. |
| Keywords: | GPs, immigration, prescriptions, NHS England |
| JEL: | I1 C01 C55 C8 |
| Date: | 2023–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15884&r=mig |