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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Dwenger, Nadja (DIW Berlin); Storck, Johanna (DIW Berlin); Wrohlich, Katharina (DIW Berlin) |
| Abstract: | Several German states recently introduced tuition fees for university education. We investigate whether these tuition fees influence the mobility of university applicants. Based on administrative data of applicants for medical schools in Germany, we estimate the effect of tuition fees on the probability of applying for a university in the home state. We find a small but significant reaction: The probability of applying for a university in the home state falls by 2 percentage points (baseline: 69%) for high-school graduates who come from a state with tuition fees. Moreover, we find that students with lower high-school grades react more strongly to tuition fees. This might have important effects on the composition of students across states. |
| Keywords: | mobility of high-school graduates, tuition fees, natural experiment |
| JEL: | I22 I28 H75 R23 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4421&r=mig |
| By: | Gibson, John (University of Waikato); McKenzie, David (World Bank); Stillman, Steven (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Trust) |
| Abstract: | The impacts of international migration on development in the sending countries, and especially the effects on remaining household members, are increasingly studied. However, comparisons of households in developing countries with and without migrants are complicated by a double-selectivity problem: households self-select into migration, and among households involved in migration, some send a subset of members with the rest remaining whilst other households migrate en masse. We address these selectivity issues using the randomization provided by an immigration ballot under the Pacific Access Category (PAC) of New Zealand's immigration policy. We survey applicants to the 2002-05 PAC ballots in Tonga and compare outcomes for the remaining household members of emigrants with those for members of similar households who were unsuccessful in the ballots. The immigration laws determine which household members can accompany the principal migrant, providing an instrument to address the second selectivity issue. Using this natural experiment we examine the myriad impacts that migration has on remaining household members, focussing on labor supply, income, durable assets, financial service usage, diet and physical and mental health and use multiple hypothesis testing procedures to examine which impacts are robust. We find the overall impact on households left behind to be largely negative. We also find evidence that both sources of selectivity matter, leading studies which fail to adequately address them to misrepresent the impact of migration. |
| Keywords: | wellbeing, selectivity, natural experiment, emigration, remittances |
| JEL: | J61 F22 C21 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4375&r=mig |
| By: | Booth, Alison L. (Australian National University); Tamura, Yuji (Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | Using the first two waves of the Vietnam Living Standards Survey, we investigate how a father's temporary absence affects children left behind in terms of their school attendance, household expenditures on education, and nonhousework labor supply in the 1990s. The estimating subsample is children aged 7-18 in households in which both parents usually coreside and the mother has not been absent. Our results indicate that paternal temporary absence increases nonhousework labor supply by his son. The longer the absence of the father, the larger the impact. One additional month of paternal temporary absence increases a son's nonhousework labor supply by approximately one week. However, a daughter's nonhousework labor supply is not affected. We find no evidence that paternal temporary absence influences his children in terms of school attendance or education-related household expenditures. |
| Keywords: | parental absence, temporary migration, schooling, human capital investment, child labor, Vietnam, VLSS |
| JEL: | I22 O15 P36 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4381&r=mig |
| By: | Boyd, Monica |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the role played by linguistic enclaves on the economic integration of immigrants to Canada. Linguistic enclaves are defined as groups of people who are similar with respect to languages used on their jobs. A five category classification of major types of linguistic enclaves is produced, using responses to two questions on the Canadian 2006 census of population: language most often used on the job and language(s) regularly used at work. Two core questions are asked: 1) What factors influence the likelihood of employment in linguistic enclaves; and 2) What are the impacts of working in linguistic enclaves on earnings? These questions are answered by examining the economic integration of immigrant allophone women and men age 26-64 who were employed in 2005 or 2006 and who were enumerated in the 2006 Canadian census of population. The investigation shows that levels of language proficiency are important factors determining the type of language enclave where individuals are employed. Further language at work mediates much of the observed impacts of language proficiency on earnings. Wage determination models also confirm that employment in linguistic enclaves conditions weekly earnings; allophone immigrants who use non-official languages at work have lower wages than those who use only English at work. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant Workers, Wages, Enclaves, Linguistic Proficiency, Work Language |
| JEL: | J31 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–09–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-50&r=mig |
| By: | Andersson, Fredrik (U.S. Department of the Treasury); Burgess, Simon (University of Bristol); Lane, Julia (National Science Foundation) |
| Abstract: | Substantial immigrant segregation in the United States, combined with the increase in the share of the U.S. foreign-born population, have led to great interest in the causes and consequences of immigrant concentration, including those related to the functioning of labor markets. This paper provides robust evidence that both the size and the quality of an immigrant enclave affects the labor market outcomes of new immigrants. We develop new measures of the quality, or information value, of immigrant networks by exploiting data based on worker earnings records matched to firm and Census information. We demonstrate the importance of immigrant employment links: network members are much more likely than other immigrants to be employed in the same firm as their geographic neighbors. Immigrants living with large numbers of employed neighbors are more likely to have jobs than immigrants in areas with fewer employed neighbors. The effects are quantitatively important and robust under alternative specifications. For example, in a high value network – one with an average employment rate in the 90th percentile – a one standard deviation increase in the log of the number of contacts in the network is associated with almost a 5% increase in the employment rate. Earnings, conditional on employment, increase by about 0.7%. |
| Keywords: | social networks, immigrant enclaves, labor market intermediaries |
| JEL: | J61 J20 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4423&r=mig |
| By: | Alcobendas, Miguel Angel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona); Rodriguez-Planas, Nuria (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | While much of the literature on immigrants' assimilation has focused on countries with a large tradition of receiving immigrants and with flexible labor markets, very little is known on how immigrants adjust to other types of host economies. With its severe dual labor market, and an unprecedented immigration boom, Spain presents a perfect natural experiment to analyze immigrations' assimilation process. Using data from the 2000 to 2008 Spanish Labor Force Survey, we find that immigrants are more occupationally mobile than natives, and that much of this greater flexibility is explained by immigrants' assimilation process soon after arrival. However, we find little evidence of convergence, especially among women and high skilled immigrants. This suggests that instead of integrating, immigrants are occupationally segregating, implying that there is both imperfect substitutability and underutilization of immigrants' human capital. |
| Keywords: | immigrants' assimilation effects, cohort effects, occupational distributions and mobility, segmented labor markets |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J61 J62 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4394&r=mig |
| By: | Dustmann, Christian (University College London); Glitz, Albrecht (Universitat Pompeu Fabra); Vogel, Thorsten (Humboldt University, Berlin) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyse differences in the cyclical pattern of employment and wages of immigrants and natives for two large immigrant receiving countries, Germany and the UK. We show that, despite large differences in their immigrant populations, there are similar and significant differences in cyclical responses between immigrants and natives in both countries, even conditional on education, age, and location. We decompose changes in outcomes into a secular trend and a business cycle component. We find significantly larger unemployment responses to economic shocks for low-skilled workers relative to high-skilled workers and for immigrants relative to natives within the same skill group. There is little evidence for differential wage responses to economic shocks. We offer three explanations for these findings: an equilibrium search model, where immigrants experience higher job separation rates, a model of dual labour markets, and differences in the complementarity of immigrants and natives to capital. |
| Keywords: | immigration, unemployment, business cycle |
| JEL: | E32 F22 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4432&r=mig |
| By: | Lewer, Joshua J. (Bradley University); Pacheco, Gail (Auckland University of Technology); Rossouw, Stephanié (Auckland University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the immigration literature by generating two unique non-economic quality of life (QOL) indices and testing their role on recent migration patterns. Applying the generated quality of life indices in conjunction with other independent welfare measures to an extended gravity model of immigration for 16 OECD destination countries from 1991 to 2000 suggests an insignificant role for QOL in the immigration process. The panel results suggest that other economic variables such as the stock of immigrants from the source country already living in the OECD destination country, population size, relative incomes, and geographic factors all significantly drive the flow of immigration for the sample. |
| Keywords: | immigration, quality of life, gravity model |
| JEL: | F22 C51 D63 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4385&r=mig |
| By: | Bernard Franck (CREM - Centre de Recherche en Economie et Management - CNRS : UMR6211 - Université de Rennes I - Université de Caen); Robert F. Owen (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - Université de Nantes : EA4272) |
| Abstract: | A two-country, two-period model of international migration highlights microeconomic foundations for examining the interrelation between brain drain, brain gain and the location of human capital formation, at home or abroad. Ex ante choices regarding where to study depend on relative qualities of university systems, individuals' abilities, sunk educational investment costs, government grants, and expected employment prospects in both countries. The analysis underscores an inherently widerange of conceivable positive or negative effects on domestic net welfare. These changes depend critically on the foregoing factors, as well as the optimal design of educational grant schemes, given eventual informational imperfections regarding individuals' capabilities. |
| Date: | 2009–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00421166_v1&r=mig |
| By: | Brücker, Herbert (IAB, Nürnberg); Fachin, Stefano (University of Rome La Sapienza); Venturini, Alessandra (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of the immigration of foreigners on domestic labour mobility. Since David Card's seminal study on the regional labour market impact of the Mariel Boatlift it is controversial whether domestic labour mobility equilibrates economic conditions across cities and regions. However, there is little or no evidence that natives leave destinations where migrants tend to cluster. In this paper we reconcile the existing evidence by taking another route. We analyze whether the immigration of foreigners replaces domestic mobility from poor to rich regions. We focus on Italy, which is characterized by market differences in earnings between the North and the South. Based on a panel cointegration approach we exploit the variance of international and internal migration over time for identifying potential displacement effects. The main finding is that, conditional on unemployment and wage differentials, the share of foreign workers in the labour force of the destination regions discourages internal labour mobility significantly. As a consequence, spatial correlation studies which use the variance of the foreigner share across region for identifying the wage and employment effects of immigration, tend to understate the actual immigration impact. |
| Keywords: | international migration, domestic migration, labour markets, panel cointegration, Italy |
| JEL: | F22 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4438&r=mig |
| By: | Barrett, Alan (ESRI, Dublin); McGuinness, Seamus (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin); O'Brien, Martin (University of Wollongong); O'Connell, Philip J. (ESRI, Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Much has been written about the labour market outcomes for immigrants in their host countries, particularly with regard to earnings, employment and occupational attainment. However, much less attention has been paid to the question of whether immigrants are as likely to receive employer-provided training relative to comparable natives. As such training should be crucial in determining the labour market success of immigrants in the long run it is a critically important question. Using data from a large scale survey of employees in Ireland, we find that immigrants are less likely to receive training from employers, with immigrants from the New Member States of the EU experiencing a particular disadvantage. The immigrant training disadvantage arises in part from a failure on the part of immigrants to get employed by training-oriented firms. However, they also experience a training disadvantage relative to natives within firms where less training is provided. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, employer-provided training, Ireland |
| JEL: | J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4425&r=mig |
| By: | Chiswick, Barry R. (University of Illinois at Chicago); Miller, Paul W. (University of Western Australia) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the way immigrant earnings are determined in Australia. It uses the overeducation/required education/undereducation (ORU) framework (Hartog, 2000) and a decomposition of the native-born/foreign-born differential in the payoff to schooling developed by Chiswick and Miller (2008). This decomposition links overeducation to the less-than- perfect international transferability of immigrants' human capital, and undereducation to favorable selection in immigration. Comparisons are offered with findings from analyses for the US and Canada to enable assessment of the relative impacts of favorable selection and the limited international transferability of human capital to the lower payoff to schooling for the foreign born. The sensitivity of the results of the decomposition to several measurement issues is assessed. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, schooling, occupations, earnings, rates of return, selectivity, skill transferability, ORU analysis |
| JEL: | F22 I21 J24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4422&r=mig |
| By: | Michael T. Gapen; Adolfo Barajas; Ralph Chami; Peter Montiel; Connel Fullenkamp |
| Abstract: | Over the past decades, workers' remittances have grown to become one of the largest sources of financial flows to developing countries, often dwarfing other widely-studied sources such as private capital and official aid flows. While it is undeniable that remittances have poverty-alleviating and consumption-smoothing effects on recipient households, a key empirical question is whether they also serve to promote long-run economic growth. This study tackles this question and addresses the main shortcomings of previous empirical work, focusing on the appropriate measurement, and incorporating an instrument that is both correlated with remittances and would only be expected to affect growth through its effect on remittances. The results show that, at best, workers' remittances have no impact on economic growth. |
| Keywords: | Capital accumulation , Capital flows , Developing countries , Economic growth , Foreign labor , Labor markets , Migration , Poverty reduction , Private capital flows , Transfers of foreigners income , Welfare , Workers remittances , |
| Date: | 2009–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:09/153&r=mig |
| By: | Laetitia Duval (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - Université de Nantes : EA4272); François-Charles Wolff (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - Université de Nantes : EA4272) |
| Abstract: | Using the LSMS panel data collected by the World Bank in Albania from 2002 to 2004, this paper focuses on the determinants and financial implication of remittances sent by family members and adult children living abroad. Our econometric analysis draws on random and fixed effects discrete choice models. We find that the proportion of households receiving remittances is large. These transfers are negatively correlated with both the donor's and the recipient's level of education. Finally, remittances have a positive impact on economic indicators like satisfaction with current situation, adequateness of food consumption and number of affordable expenditures |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00421234_v1&r=mig |
| By: | Chiswick, Barry R. (University of Illinois at Chicago); Miller, Paul W. (University of Western Australia) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether the results of the earnings equation developed in the overeducation/required eduation/under-education (ORU) literature are sensitive to whether the usual or reference levels of education are measured using the Realized Matches or Worker Self-Assessment methods. The analyses are conducted for all male native-born and immigrant workers in the US, by level of skill, and by occupation. While point estimates differ, particularly when earnings equations are estimated for the smaller samples of sub-groups of the workforce, the general findings are robust to this measurement issue. Thus, the answers provided to the typical research questions in the ORU literature on the utilization of schooling are independent of the measure of the usual or reference level of education used in the analyses. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, skill, schooling, occupations, earnings, rates of return |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J31 J61 F22 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4382&r=mig |
| By: | Frimmel, Wolfgang (University of Linz); Halla, Martin (University of Linz); Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf (University of Linz) |
| Abstract: | This paper documents that changes in assortative mating patterns over the last four decades along the dimensions of age, ethnicity and religion are not responsible for the increasing marital stability in Austria. Quite the contrary, without the rise in the age at marriage, divorce rates would be considerably higher. Immigration and secularization, and the resulting supply of spouses with diverse ethnicity and religious denominations had no overall effect on divorce rates. Countervailing effects – in line with theoretical predictions – offset each other. The rise in the incidence in divorce is most probably caused by changing social norms. |
| Keywords: | assortative mating, divorce, marital instability, immigration |
| JEL: | J12 J11 J15 Z12 D1 R2 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4446&r=mig |
| By: | Judith K. Hellerstein; Melissa McInerney; David Neumark |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between Hispanic employment and location-specific measures of the distribution of jobs. We find that it is only the local density of jobs held by Hispanics that matters for Hispanic employment, that measures of local job density defined for Hispanic poor English speakers or immigrants are more important, and that the density of jobs held by Hispanic poor English speakers are most important for the employment of these less-skilled Hispanics than for other Hispanics. This evidence is consistent with labor market networks being an important influence on the employment of less-skilled Hispanics, as is evidence from other sources. We also find that in MSAs where the growth rates of the Hispanic immigrant population have been highest, which are also MSAs with historically low Hispanic populations, localized job density for low-skilled jobs is even more important for Hispanic employment than in the full sample. We interpret this evidence as consistent with the importance of labor market networks, as strong labor market networks are likely to have been especially important in inducing Hispanics to migrate, and because of these networks employment in these “new immigrant†cities is especially strongly tied to the local availability of jobs. |
| JEL: | J1 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15398&r=mig |
| By: | Rabby, Faisal (Missouri State University); Rodgers III, William M. (Rutgers University) |
| Abstract: | Using a difference-in-differences framework and micro data from the Current Population Survey-Merged Outgoing Rotation Group Files (1999 to 2004), this paper estimates the impact that the 9-11 terrorists attacks had on the U.S. labor market outcomes of individuals with nativity profiles similar to the terrorists. We find that shortly after the attacks, the employment-population ratios and hours worked of very young (ages 16 to 25) Muslim men fell. By 2004, most losses had begun to dissipate. The employment-population ratios and hours worked of older Muslim men experienced little deterioration. |
| Keywords: | muslim, 9/11, labor market outcomes, immigrant workers |
| JEL: | J15 J61 J71 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4411&r=mig |
| By: | Chiswick, Barry R. (University of Illinois at Chicago); Miller, Paul W. (University of Western Australia) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the difference between the payoffs to schooling for immigrants and the native born in Canada, using 2001 Census data. Analyses are presented for males and females. Comparisons are offered with findings for the US. The paper uses the Overeducation/Required education/Undereducation framework (Hartog, 2000) and a decomposition developed by Chiswick and Miller (2008). This decomposition links overeducation to the less-than-perfect international transferability of immigrants' human capital, and under-education to favourable selection in immigration. The results show that immigrants have a lower payoff to schooling because of the different effects under-education and over-education have on their earnings. The effects of under-education, or selection in immigration, are, however, twice as large as the effects of over-education, or limited international transferability of human capital. Favourable selection in immigration appears to be less important in Canada than in the US, where it predominates among the least educated. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, skill, schooling, earnings, rates of return, Canada |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J31 J61 F22 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4448&r=mig |
| By: | DeVoretz, Don J. (Simon Fraser University); Battisti, Michele (Simon Fraser University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the economic performance of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries in Canada. The contribution of this paper lies in its use of a natural experiment to detect possible differential labour market performances of Soviet immigrants prior to and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In short, the collapse of the former Soviet Union allows an exogenous supply change in the number and type of FSU immigrants potentially destined to enter Canada. For this purpose, Census microlevel data from the 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001 Canadian Census are utilized to estimate earnings and employment outcomes for pre- and post-FSU immigrants. |
| Keywords: | immigration, integration |
| JEL: | J61 F22 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4410&r=mig |
| By: | Douglas Almond; Lena Edlund; Kevin Milligan |
| Abstract: | Sex ratios at birth are above the biologically normal level in a number of Asian countries, notably India and China. Standard explanations include poverty and a cultural emphasis on male offspring. We study Asian immigrants to Canada using Census data, focussing on sex ratios across generations and religious groups. We find sex ratios to be normal at first parity, but rising with parity if there were no previous son. Since these immigrants are neither poor nor live in a society tolerant of sex discrimination/sex selection, our findings are more consistent with a preference for sons per se (and not for sons as a means to, e.g., old age support). Additionally, we uncover strong differences by religious affiliation that align with historical differences in doctrine concerning infanticide. Comparing across generations of Asian immigrants, we find fertility responds strongly to the sex composition of older children for first generation families. For the second generation, expression of son preference through the fertility channel is muted whereas sex selection seems to persist. |
| JEL: | F22 J13 J61 Z12 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15391&r=mig |
| By: | Paul Frijters; Xin Meng (School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | China is not merely growing at double the rate of the European countries during the Industrial Revolution, it is also urbanising at double the speed. Using a unique dataset of rural-to-urban migrants in 15 major Chinese cities, we give preliminary answers to some of the most pressing policy questions: how many migrants are there and what are their attributes? Are they dissatisfied or are their kids doing worse than the kids of others? Are they discriminated on the labour market and, if so, what are the mechanisms via which this discrimination works and where are the market forces to undo the discrimination? |
| Keywords: | migration, economic growth, urbanisation, Tiebout, political economy, discrimination |
| Date: | 2009–09–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qut:pfrijt:2009&r=mig |
| By: | Carine Milcent |
| Abstract: | How to improve healthcare access for Chinese migrants? We show that the social network is a major key. It uses a 2006 dataset from a survey of rural migrant workers conducted in five cities amongst the most economically advanced. We use a fixed effect logit model and we control for the non-exogeneity of the health insurance. The empirical findings support the hypothesis of return to the hometown for migrant workers with deteriorated health. The residence registration system and the importance of family/relative support in the outcome of the treatment incent them to then leave the city. Besides the level of income, the social integration of migrant workers is such a decisive criteria of the access to healthcare. Politicies aiming at improving the latter should involve organisations working at the local level, such as the resident committees. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pse:psecon:2009-37&r=mig |
| By: | Jellal, Mohamed |
| Abstract: | One considers a model of accumulation of the human capital in the presence of the international migration offers. One shows that under certain conditions,this option can support the increase in the stock of the national human capital by taking of account the externalities. Thus the `brain drain' would have a positive impact on the national economy under a well controlled restrictive migratory policy. The difficulty of this control scheme leads us to propose an alternative model suggesting the internalisation of the human capital externalities thus allowing the implementation of the social optimum. The mechanism of this internalisation is based on the endogenous creation of cultural norm with the accumulation of the knowledge. This social norm avoids the risks of conditionalities inherent in a migratory policy as a mechanism of internalisation of the externalities of the human capital. |
| Keywords: | Human capital Formation; Brain Gain; Social Norm ; Diaspora Formation |
| JEL: | F22 I21 J24 Z13 F43 |
| Date: | 2009–10–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:17734&r=mig |