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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Åslund, Olof (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Böhlmark, Anders (Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University); Nordström Skans, Oskar (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation) |
| Abstract: | The paper studies childhood migrants and examines how age at migration affects their ensuing integration at the residential market, the labor market, and the marriage market. We use population-wide Swedish data and compare outcomes as adults among siblings arriving at different ages in order to ensure that the results can be given a causal inter-pretation. The results show that the children who arrived at a higher age had substan-tially lower shares of natives among their neighbors, coworkers and spouses as adults. The effects are mostly driven by higher exposure to immigrants of similar ethnic origin, in particular at the marriage market. There are also non-trivial effects on employment, but a more limited impact on education and wages. We also analyze children of migrants and show that parents’ time in the host country before child birth matters, which implies that the outcomes of the social integra¬tion process are inherited. Inherited integration has a particularly strong impact on the marriage patterns of females. |
| Keywords: | Immigration; integration; segregation; age at migration; siblings |
| JEL: | J01 J12 J13 J15 |
| Date: | 2009–09–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2009_021&r=mig |
| By: | Alain Trannoy, Laurent Simula and (Uppsala Center for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | We examine how allowing individuals to emigrate to pay lower taxes changes the optimal nonlinear income tax scheme in a Mirrleesian economy. An individual emigrates if his domestic utility is less than his utility abroad, net of migration costs – utilities and costs both depending on productivity. A simple formula, that complements Saez’s formula obtained in closed economy, is derived for the marginal tax rates faced by top-income earners. It depends on the labour elasticity, the tax rate abroad and the migration costs expressed as a fraction of the utility obtained abroad. The Rawlsian marginal tax rates, obtained for the whole population, illustrate a curse of the middle-skilled. Simulations are provided for the French economy. |
| Keywords: | Optimal Income Taxation; Top income; Emigration; Participation Constraints |
| JEL: | D82 F22 H21 H31 |
| Date: | 2009–10–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uufswp:2009_008&r=mig |
| By: | Alain Trannoy, Laurent Simula and (Uppsala Center for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | We examine how allowing individuals to emigrate to pay lower taxes abroad changes the optimal non-linear income tax scheme in a Mirrleesian economy. An individual emigrates if his domestic utility is less than his utility abroad net of migration costs, utilities and costs both depending on productivity. Three average social criteria are distinguished – national, citizen and resident – according to the agents whose welfare matters. A curse of the middle-skilled occurs in the first-best and it may be optimal to let some highly skilled leave the country under the resident criterion. In the second-best, we provide an extension of Saez’s formula for the optimal marginal tax rates. The middle-skilled can support the highest average tax rates and the marginal tax rates can be negative. Preventing emigration of the highly skilled is not necessarily optimal under the citizen and resident criteria. |
| Keywords: | Optimal Income Tax; Emigration; Participation Constraints; Highly Skilled |
| JEL: | D82 F22 H21 H31 |
| Date: | 2009–10–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uufswp:2009_009&r=mig |
| By: | Aïda Solé-Auró (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Montserrat Guillén (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Eileen M. Crimmins (Andrus Gerontology Center. University of Southern California) |
| Abstract: | Objective: This study examines health care utilization of immigrants relative to the native-born populations aged 50 years and older in eleven European countries. Methods: We analyzed data from the Survey of Health Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) from 2004 for a sample of 27,444 individuals. Negative Binomial regression was conducted to examine the difference in number of doctor visits, visits to General Practitioners (GPs), and hospital stays between immigrants and the native-born. Results: We find evidence those immigrants above age 50 use health services on average more than the native-born populations with the same characteristics. Our models show immigrants have between 6% and 27% more expected visits to the doctor, GP or hospital stays when compared to native-born populations in a number of European countries. Discussion: Elderly immigrant populations might be using health services more intensively due to cultural reasons. |
| Keywords: | count data, physician services, immigration |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:200920&r=mig |
| By: | Teresa Casey (Department of Economics and Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), University College London); Christian Dustmann (University College London, CReAM) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we address three issues relating to immigrants’ identity, measured as the feeling of belonging to particular ethnic groups. We study the formation of identity with home and host countries. We investigate how identity with either country relates to immigrants’ and their children’s labour market outcomes. Finally, we analyse the intergenerational transmission of identity. Our analysis is based on a unique longitudinal dataset on immigrants and their children. We find that identity with either country is only weakly related to labour market outcomes. However, there is strong intergenerational transmission of identity from one generation to the next. |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:200923&r=mig |
| By: | Alberto F. Alesina; Paola Giuliano |
| Abstract: | We establish an inverse relationship between family ties and political participation, such that the more individuals rely on the family as a provider of services, insurance, transfer of resources, the lower is one’s civic engagment and political participation. We also show that strong family ties appear to be a substitute for generalized trust, rather than a complement to it. These three constructs-civic engagement, political participation, and trust- are part of what is known as social capital; therefore, in this paper, we contribute to the investigation of the origin and evolution of social capital. We establish these results using within-country evidence and looking at the behavior of immigrants from various countries in 32 different destination places. |
| JEL: | P16 Z10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15415&r=mig |
| By: | Szulkin, Ryszard (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS); Hällsten, Martin (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine mechanisms that generate gaps in educational attainment and labor market outcomes between children of immigrants and children of native Swedes. Theoretical explanations of how social inequality between generations is (re)produced focus on a relative lack of resources within the family and/or in the broader social environment, particularly in neighborhoods and schools. In the empirical analyses we follow over time all individuals who completed compulsory school during the period 1990 -1995 and analyze what types of background factors have influenced their educational and labor market careers, which are measured for the year 2007. On the basis of our empirical results we conclude that the gaps between children of immigrants and children of native Swedes are mainly generated by differences in various forms of resources in the family of origin. The role of neighborhood segregation is less substantial. Moreover, our results indicate that the gaps in employment are larger than the corresponding gaps in educational attainment. When gainfully employed, children of immigrants born in Sweden follow roughly the same path as children from native families in contrast to children born abroad. |
| Keywords: | Inequality; education; labor market; children of immigrants |
| JEL: | I21 J15 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–09–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sulcis:2009_009&r=mig |
| By: | Horácio C. Faustino; João Peixoto |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes Portuguese immigration during the period 1995-2006 and estimates the effects of an increase in the stock of immigrants and of the increased percentage of highly-skilled immigrants employed in manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the effects are estimated of immigrant entrepreneurs active in manufacturing industry on Portugal’s bilateral trade with 38 countries. The latter group includes, in addition to the member-countries of the EU27, five African countries with Portuguese as their official language, and known as PALOPs. In 2006, these two blocs combined accounted for 83% of Portugal’s trade in goods and 89% of its immigrant stock. Panel data is used to conduct an econometric analysis. The study finds that a 10% increase in the immigrant stock will produce the following effects on Portugal’s bilateral trade with these countries: an increase of 2.8% in exports, an increase of 2.66% in imports, an increase of 1.87% in IIT, an increase of 4.01% in HIIT and an increase of 1.48% in VIIT. In addition, we conclude that higher percentages both of highly skilled immigrant workers and immigrant employers in manufacturing industry have a positive effect on exports, IIT and VIIT. |
| Keywords: | Immigration; trade; skills; entrepreneurship; panel data; Portugal. |
| JEL: | C33 F11 F12 F22 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:isegwp:wp362009&r=mig |
| By: | George J. Borjas; Rachel M. Friedberg |
| Abstract: | This paper studies long-term trends in the labor market performance of immigrants in the United States, using the 1960-2000 PUMS and 1994-2009 CPS. While there was a continuous decline in the earnings of new immigrants 1960-1990, the trend reversed in the 1990s, with newcomers doing as well in 2000, relative to natives, as they had 20 years earlier. This improvement in immigrant performance is not explained by changes in origin-country composition, educational attainment or state of residence. Changes in labor market conditions, including changes in the wage structure which could differentially impact recent arrivals, can account for only a small portion of it. The upturn appears to have been caused in part by a shift in immigration policy toward high-skill workers matched with jobs, an increase in the earnings of immigrants from Mexico, and a decline in the earnings of native high school dropouts. However, most of the increase remains a puzzle. Results from the CPS suggest that, while average entry wages fell again after 2000, correcting for simple changes in the composition of new immigrants, the unexplained rise in entry wages has persisted. |
| JEL: | J6 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15406&r=mig |
| By: | Cuberes, David |
| Abstract: | This paper uses new estimates of the dates on which different countries have experienced their demographic transition to address two empirical questions. First, I study the importance of different socioeconomic variables on the timing of these transitions. Second, I distinguish between countries that have experienced early and late demographic transitions and compare their relative income around the transition date. My results indicate that the size of a country’s urban population plays a crucial role in triggering its demographic transition. In particular, after controlling for income and total population, more urbanized countries tend to experience an earlier demographic transition. Moreover, countries that experience an early demographic transition (before 1950) are much richer than latecomers, suggesting that urbanization plays a more important role than income in the latter. One interpretation of these results is that a country’s level of income and rate of urbanization are substitutable factors that trigger the country’s demographic transition. Finally, if one accepts the premise that urban agglomerations enhance both technological progress and the demand for human capital, the results provide indirect support for theories that highlight these factors as triggers of the demographic transition or the escape from Malthusian traps. |
| Keywords: | urbanization; demographic transition; rural-urban migration; Malthusian traps |
| JEL: | O18 J10 N90 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:17720&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:17818&r=mig |