nep-mig New Economics Papers
on Economics of Human Migration
Issue of 2008‒04‒21
six papers chosen by
Yuji Tamura
Australian National University

  1. Studying Abroad and the Effect on International Labor Market Mobility: Evidence from the Introduction of ERASMUS By Parey, Matthias; Waldinger, Fabian
  2. The Impact of College Graduation on Geographic Mobility: Identifying Education Using Multiple Components of Vietnam Draft Risk By Malamud, Ofer; Wozniak, Abigail
  3. Earnings Inequality and Earnings Instability of Immigrants in Canada By Ostrovsky, Yuri
  4. The Effects of Social and Labour Market Policies of EU-countries on the Socio-Economic Integration of First and Second Generation Immigrants from Different Countries of Origin By Fenella Fleischmann; Jaap Dronkers
  5. Remittances, Inflation and Exchange Rate Regimes in Small Open Economies By Christopher P. Ball; Martha Cruz-Zuniga; Claude Lopez; Javier Reyes
  6. Immigration can alleviate the ageing problem By Muysken Joan; Cörvers Frank; Ziesemer Thomas

  1. By: Parey, Matthias (University College London); Waldinger, Fabian (CEP, London School of Economics)
    Abstract: We investigate the effect of studying abroad on international labor market mobility later in life for university graduates. As a source of identifying variation, we exploit the introduction and expansion of the European ERASMUS student exchange program, which significantly increases a student’s probability of studying abroad. Using an Instrument Variable approach we control for unobserved heterogeneity between individuals who studied abroad and those who did not. Our results indicate that student exchange mobility is an important determinant of later international labor market mobility: We find that studying abroad increases an individual’s probability of working in a foreign country by about 15 to 20 percentage points, suggesting that study abroad spells are an important channel to later migration. We investigate heterogeneity in returns and find that studying abroad has a stronger effect for credit constrained students. Furthermore, we suggest mechanisms through which the effect of studying abroad may operate. Our results are robust to a number of specification checks.
    Keywords: international mobility, migration, student exchange, education
    JEL: J61 I2 F22
    Date: 2008–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3430&r=mig
  2. By: Malamud, Ofer (University of Chicago); Wozniak, Abigail (University of Notre Dame)
    Abstract: College-educated workers are twice as likely as high school graduates to make lasting long-distance moves, but little is known about the role of college itself in determining geographic mobility. Unobservable characteristics related to selection into college might also drive the relationship between college education and geographic mobility. We explore this question using a number of methods to analyze both the 1980 Census and longitudinal sources. We conclude that the causal impact of college completion on subsequent mobility is large. We introduce new instrumental variables that allow us to identify educational attainment and veteran status separately in a sample of men whose college decisions were exogenously influenced by their draft risk during the Vietnam War. Our preferred IV estimates imply that graduation increases the probability that a man resides outside his birth state by approximately 35 percentage points, a magnitude nearly twice as large as the OLS migration differential between college and high school graduates. IV estimates of graduation’s impact on total distance moved are even larger, with IV estimates that exceed OLS considerably. We provide evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979 that our large IV estimates are plausible and likely explained by heterogeneous treatment effects. Finally, we provide some suggestive evidence on the mechanisms driving the relationship between college completion and mobility.
    Keywords: geographic mobility, education, college graduates, internal migration, instrumental variables
    JEL: J61 J24 I23
    Date: 2008–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3432&r=mig
  3. By: Ostrovsky, Yuri
    Abstract: The deterioration of immigrants' entry earnings in Canada in the past three decades has been well documented. This study provides further insights into the changing fortunes of immigrants by focusing on their earnings inequality and earnings instability. The analysis is based on a flexible econometric model that decomposes earnings inequality into current and long-term components. In addition to constructing earnings inequality and earnings instability profiles for different arrival cohorts, we also examine the underlying causes of earnings inequality, including the impact of foreign education, birthplace and the ability to speak English or French.
    Keywords: Labour, Ethnic diversity and immigration, Income, pensions, spending and wealth, Wages, salaries and other earnings, Immigrants and non-permanent residents, Low income and inequality
    Date: 2008–04–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2008309e&r=mig
  4. By: Fenella Fleischmann; Jaap Dronkers
    Abstract: In this article, we analyse four different dimensions of socio-economic integration of 1st and 2nd generation immigrants into the labour markets of 13 EU countries and we assess, taking into account a number of individual characteristics, the effects of the countries of origin and the countries of destination on this integration. We find that participation in the labour market, unemployment, occupational status and the chances of reaching the upper middle-class are different, although inter-related, dimensions of the socio-economic integration of immigrants and they work differently for men and women. In the countries of destination, the level of employment protection legislation and the conservative welfare regime affect this integration negatively. Most indicators of national policies aimed at the integration of immigrants have no effects on the socio-economic integration of immigrants. Furthermore, we find a number of origin effects which continue to have an impact on 2nd generation immigrants. Political stability and political freedom in origin countries have positive and negative effects on socio-economic integration. The emigration rate of the origin countries has a negative effect. The higher levels of socio-economic integration amongst immigrants from other EU-countries demonstrates the functioning of the European Union as an integrated labour market .Controlling for individual religious affiliation turns out to be very useful, since we find a number of negative effects of being a Muslim, among both men and women. While individual education is an important predictor of immigrants' labour market outcomes, our findings indicate lower returns on this education in terms of occupational status, indicating a ceiling effect for highly-educated 2nd generation immigrants who cannot translate their qualifications into high-status jobs to the same extent as their native peers.
    Keywords: immigration, integration, labour market, European Union, social policy
    Date: 2007–05–25
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2007/19&r=mig
  5. By: Christopher P. Ball; Martha Cruz-Zuniga; Claude Lopez; Javier Reyes
    Abstract: Remittances are private monetary transfers yet the rapidly growing literature on the subject seems to forget their monetary nature and thus ignore the role that exchange rate regimes play in determining the effect remittances have on a recipient economy. This paper uses a theoretical model and panel vector autoregression techniques to explore the role exchange rate regimes play in understanding the effect of remittances. The analysis considers yearly and quarterly data for seven Latin American countries. Our theoretical model predicts that remittances should be inflationary and generate an increase in the domestic money supply under a fixed regime but deflationary and generate no change in the money supply under a flexible regime. These differences are borne out in the data. This adds to our understanding of the true effect of remittances on economies and suggests results existent in the literature that do not control for regimes may be biased.
    Date: 2008
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cin:ucecwp:2008-03&r=mig
  6. By: Muysken Joan; Cörvers Frank; Ziesemer Thomas (METEOR)
    Abstract: This paper analyses the way immigration can help to alleviate the burden ageing presents for the welfare states of most Western Economies. We develop a macroeconomic framework which deals with the impact of both ageing and immigration on economic growth. This is combined with a detailed model of the labour market, to include the interaction with unemployment, while distinguishing between low- and high-skilled labour. The empirical relevance of some crucial model assumptions are shown to hold for the Netherlands, 1973 – 2005. The conclusions are that immigration will help to alleviate the ageing problem, as long as the immigrants will be able to find work. Moreover, the better educated the immigrants are or become, the higher their contribution to growth will be.
    Keywords: macroeconomics ;
    Date: 2008
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umamet:2008004&r=mig

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