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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Purvi Sevak (Hunter College); Lucie Schmidt (Williams College) |
| Abstract: | Existing literature suggests that immigrants receive lower wages than U.S.-born workers with similar characteristics. This could imply that immigrant households would enter retirement at a significant financial disadvantage. In this paper, we examine the retirement resources available to immigrant families by examining Social Security benefits, pension coverage, and private wealth accumulation. Our results suggest that although immigrant families may be financially better-off in the U.S. than in their native countries, they do enter retirement at a significant financial disadvantage relative to native born households with similar characteristics. |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrr:papers:wp169&r=mig |
| By: | Sebastian Gundel; Heiko Peters |
| Abstract: | We analyze the return-migration of German immigrants using the latest data of the German Socio- Economic Panel from 1984 to 2006. We conduct a Cox proportional hazard model with years of residence in Germany as waiting time. The analysis reveals that return migration is heavily influenced by country of origin. Individuals from countries with free labor movement agreements with Germany show a considerably higher likelihood of leaving the country relative to the others. The main finding is, with respect to the self-selection process we discovered that highly skilled are more likely to return than the less skilled. In addition, the results give plenty of information regarding the design of German immigration policy. |
| Keywords: | Remigration, Cox proportional hazard model, Germany |
| JEL: | C41 F22 J10 J61 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp79&r=mig |
| By: | Russo, Giuseppe |
| Abstract: | The claim that "skilled immigration is welcome" is often associated to the increasing adoption of selective immigration policies. I study the voting over differentiated immigration policies in a two-country, three-factor general equilibrium model where there exist skilled and unskilled workers, migration decisions are endogenous, enforcing immigration restriction is costly, and natives dislike unskilled immigration. According to my findings, decisions over border closure are made to protect the median voter when her capital endowment is sufficiently small. Therefore I argue that the professed favour for skilled immigration veils the protection for the insiders. This result is confirmed by the observation that entry is rationed for both skilled and unskilled workers. Moreover, immigration aversion helps to explain the existence of entry barriers for unskilled workers in countries where the majority of voters is skilled. |
| Keywords: | Selective immigration policies; multidimensional voting; Condorcet winner. |
| JEL: | F22 D72 J18 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6845&r=mig |
| By: | Maude Toussaint-Comeau |
| Abstract: | Previous study by Card and Lewis (2005) has found (puzzling) that inflows of Mexican immigrants into “new” metropolitan areas have had no effect on the relative wages of very low-skill (high school dropouts). Rather, Mexican workers do affect relative wages for high school graduates. Whereas Card and Lewis’ study uses variations across geographies, this paper considers variations across occupations. Recognizing that Mexican immigrants are highly occupationally clustered (disproportionately work in distinctive “very low wage” occupations), we use this fact to motivate the empirical approach to analyze the relationship between the composition of Mexican immigrants across occupations/industries and average wages in the occupations/industries. To summarize our finding, we confirm that in spite of the fact that Mexican immigrants are disproportionately in “very low skill” occupations, (which we define as occupations where the average workers have no high school education), we find no significant impact of Mexican immigrants on wages in those occupations. By contrast, inflows of Mexican immigrants have some small effects on the wages of native workers in “low skill” occupations (which we define as occupations where the average worker has at least some high school education or is a high school graduate). These results suggest potential “spill over effects” as natives may be reallocating their labor supply into non-predominant Mexican occupations. An analysis of employment changes of natives into different occupation groupings in response to an inflow of Mexican immigrants, confirms that natives’ employment in occupations where the average worker has a high school education increases in response to Mexican inflows in the U.S labor force from previous periods. |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-07-24&r=mig |
| By: | David Wildasin (Martin School of Public Policy and Administration and Department of Economics, University of Kentucky) |
| Abstract: | The rich countries of the world, especially those of Western Europe, are aging rapidly due to fertility rates far below the replacement rate, while experiencing substantial immigration from elsewhere in Europe, North Africa, and the third world generally. For the foreseeable future, West European countries will confront a policy tradeoff between population aging and (im)migration. The literature shows that both skilled and unskilled workers affect the highly redistributive fiscal systems of the advanced economies, the first as net contributors, the second as net beneficiaries. Age-imbalanced population structures in rich countries and global competition for labor create incentives to limit the extent of redistribution in rich countries. |
| Keywords: | Aging, Public Pensions, Migration, Fiscal Adjustment |
| JEL: | H0 F2 J61 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifr:wpaper:2008-02&r=mig |
| By: | Andrew Sharpe, Jean-Francois Arsenault, and Daniel Ershov |
| Abstract: | The Impact of Interprovincial Migration on Aggregate Output and Labour Productivity in Canada, 1987-2006 |
| Abstract: | Interprovincial migration has increased significantly in Canada since 2003. This article develops a methodology to estimate total output gains due to interprovincial migration from two sources: gains due to increased employment, and gains due to re-allocation of workers between provinces with different productivity levels. It estimates that in 2006 the net output gains arising from interprovincial migration were $883.1 million (1997 constant prices), or 0.074 per cent of GDP. Higher employment rates in provinces experiencing a net positive balance of interprovincial migrants were responsible for $398.0 million of the gains and higher output per worker in these provinces was responsible for $485.0 million. |
| Keywords: | Interprovincial migration, Canada, Labour Productivity, Economic Growth. |
| JEL: | J61 E20 O20 O47 O51 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sls:resrep:0702&r=mig |
| By: | Riccardo DiCecio; Charles S. Gascon |
| Abstract: | We use non-parametric distribution dynamics techniques to reassess the convergence of per capita personal income (PCPI) across U.S. states and across metropolitan and nonmetropolitan portions of states for the period 1969-2005. The long-run distribution of PCPI is bimodal for both states and metro/nonmetro portions. Further- more, the high income mode of the distribution across metro and nonmetro portions corresponds to the single mode of the long-run distribution across metro portions only. These results (polarization or club-convergence) are reversed when weighting by population. The long run distributions across people are consistent with convergence. Migration and urbanization are the forces behind convergence. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Internal ; Income distribution |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2008-002&r=mig |