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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Todd Sorensen; Price V. Fishback; Samuel Allen; Shawn E. Kantor |
| Abstract: | During the 1930s the federal government embarked upon an ambitious series of grant programs designed to counteract the Great Depression. The amounts distributed varied widely across the country and potentially contributed to population shifts. We estimate an aggregate discrete choice model, in which household heads choose among 466 economic subregions. The structural model allows us to decompose the effects of program spending on migration into three categories: the effect of spending on keeping households in their origin (retention), the effect of pulling non-migrants out of their origin (creation), and the effect of causing migrants to substitute away from an alternative destination (diversion). An additional dollar of public works and relief spending increased net migration into an area primarily by retaining the existing population and creating new migration into the county. Only a small share of the increase in net migration rate was caused by diversion of people who had already chosen to migrate. AAA spending contributed to net out migration, primarily by creating new out migrants and repelling potential in migrants. A counterfactual analysis suggests that the uneven distribution of New Deal spending explains about twelve percent of the internal migration flows in the United States between 1935 and 1940. |
| JEL: | J61 N32 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13491&r=mig |
| By: | Sergio Currarini (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari and School for Advanced Studies in Venice); Paolo Pin (Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste and University of Venice); Matthew O. Jackson (Department of Economics, Stanford University and the Santa Fe Institute.) |
| Abstract: | We develop a model of friendship formation that sheds light on segregation patterns observed in social and economic networks. Individuals come in different types and have type-dependent benefits from friendships; we examine the properties of a steady-state equilibrium of a matching process of friendship formation. We use the model to understand three empirical patterns of friendship formation: (i) larger groups tend to form more same-type ties and fewer other-type ties than small groups, (ii) larger groups form more ties per capita, and (iii) all groups are biased towards same-type relative to demographics, with the most extreme bias coming from middle-sized groups. We trace each of these empirical observations to specific properties of the theoretical model and highlight the role of choice and chance in generating homophilous behavior. Finally we discuss welfare implications of the model. |
| Keywords: | Networks, Homophily, Segregation, Friendships, Social Networks, Integration, Diversity, Minorities |
| JEL: | D85 A14 J15 J16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:20_07&r=mig |
| By: | Shinichiro Iwata (Faculty of Economics, University of Toyama); Koji Karato (Faculty of Economics, University of Toyama) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the location choices of homeless people in Osaka City, and .nds them concentrated because of homeless networks. The paper also shows that different types of homeless networks operate in two different homeless groups: (1) peer networks that provide a social tie inside homeless communities are observed in groups that had not had work experience in the day labor market; (2) homed networks that provide a social tie outside homeless communities affect location choice in the expected way, although the effect is statistically insigni.cant in groups that had worked in the day labor market. |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2007cf522&r=mig |
| By: | Mathias Sinning |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relative wealth position and the portfolio choices of immigrants in Germany. The empirical findings reveal significant differences in overall wealth and various wealth components between German natives and immigrants. Differences in real estate constitute the major part of different levels of net worth, indicating that disparities in home-ownership rates are responsible for the main part of the overall wealth gap. Moreover, migrants’ degree of portfolio diversification is significantly lower than that of comparable natives. The results of a decomposition analysis suggest that diffrences in wealth and asset holdings may be explained by disparity in educational attainment to a sizable extent, while the effects of income differentials and differences in demographic characteristics are insignificant. |
| Keywords: | International migration, wealth accumulation, decomposition analysis, multiple imputation |
| JEL: | F22 D31 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0030&r=mig |
| By: | David G. Blanchflower; Chris Shadforth |
| Abstract: | UK population growth over the past thirty-five years has been remarkably low in comparison with other countries; the population grew by just 7% between 1971 and 2004, less than all the other EU15 countries. The UK population has grown at a faster pace since the turn of the millennium. Both the inflow and outflow rates have risen, but the inflow rate has risen more rapidly recently, with an influx of workers from Eastern European. The propensity to come to the UK to work is higher the lower is a) GDP per capita b) life satisfaction in each of the East European countries. There is reason to believe that the majority of those who have arrived in the UK from Eastern Europe have not come permanently. When surveyed only 9% said they expected to stay for more than two years. Hence, in our view it is inappropriate to call them migrants, whereas in fact they should more appropriately be considered temporary or guest workers. There is evidence that, as a result of this increase in the flow of workers from Eastern Europe, the fear of unemployment has risen in the UK which appears to have contained wage pressures. We argue that the influx of workers from Eastern Europe has tended to increase supply by more than it has increased demand in the UK (in the short run). We argue that this has acted to reduce inflationary pressures and reduce the natural rate of unemployment. |
| JEL: | J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13506&r=mig |
| By: | Etzo, Ivan |
| Abstract: | After two decades of low internal migration rates, official national statistics report a considerable increase of internal mobility which started in 1996 and still continues to grow at the time of writing. Using panel data analysis on gross migration flows between regions, this study investigates the role of the main economic determinants during the period 1996-2002.. The analysis distinguishes between the role played by the same explanatory variable in the sending region (push factor) and in the destination region (pull factor). The per capita GDP turns out to be the main economic determinant, showing a strong effect both when it acts as a push factor and when it acts as an attractive factor. On the contrary, the effect of the unemployment rate estimates is much stronger in the sending region than in the destination region. Moreover, the standard gravity variables like distance and population size are also significant and with the expected sign. |
| Keywords: | Interregional migration; gravity model; panel data. |
| JEL: | R1 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:5307&r=mig |