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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Davide Dottori (Bank of Italy); I-Ling Shen (Université catholique de Louvain) |
| Abstract: | A political-economic model is provided to study the impact of low-skilled immigration on the receiving country's education system, in terms of sources of school funding, expenditure per pupil, and type of parents who are more likely to send children to privately funded schools. The education regime results from the interplay between households' choices on fertility and education and the public education provided. No exogenous culturally-based difference is assumed among agents. Low-skilled migrant workers differ from their local counterparts only in voting rights and adjustment costs. The impact of immigration on public school congestion, tax base, wages and skill premium are considered. When the number of low-skilled immigrants is large, the education regime tends to become more segregated, with wealthier locals more likely to opt out of the public system into private schools. The fertility differential between high- and low-skilled locals increases due to a quantity/quality trade-off. The theoretical predictions conform to stylized facts revealed in US census data and OECD PISA (2003). |
| Keywords: | double taxation, education funding, fertility, migration, segregation, voting |
| JEL: | H42 H52 I21 D72 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_726_09&r=mig |
| By: | Hensen Maud M.; Vries M. Robert de; Cörvers Frank (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | In this article we investigate the relationship between geographic mobility andeducation-job mismatch in the Netherlands. We focus on the role of geographicmobility in reducing the probability of graduates working (i) jobs below theireducation level; (ii) jobs outside their study fi eld; (iii) part-time jobs; (iv) fl exiblejobs; or (v) jobs paid below the wage expected at the beginning of the career. For thispurpose we use data on secondary and higher vocational education graduates in theperiod 1996–2001. We show that graduates who are mobile have higher probabilityof fi nding jobs at the acquired education level than those who are not. Moreover,mobile graduates have higher probability of fi nding full-time or permanent jobs.Th is suggests that mobility is sought to prevent not only having to take a job belowthe acquired education level, but also other education-job mismatches; graduates arespatially fl exible particularly to ensure full-time jobs. |
| Keywords: | education, training and the labour market; |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2009009&r=mig |
| By: | Juan Miguel Gallego (Toulouse School of Economics and LdA); Mariapia Mendola (University of Milan Bicocca and LdA) |
| Abstract: | There is a large literature pointing to community participation and social networks as salient components of household well-being in developing settings. Yet, there are few insights into whether people mobility affects incentive problems associated with social networks, or whether labor migration displaces social informal institutions in village economies at origin. This paper directly tests the role of international migration in shaping participation in groups and social networks by migrant sending households in village economies at origin. By using an original household survey from two southern regions in Mozambique, we find that households with successful migrants (i.e. those receiving either remittances or return migration) engage more in community based social networks. Our findings are robust to alternative definitions of social interaction and to endogeneity concerns suggesting that stable migration ties and higher income stability through remittances may decrease participation constraints and increase household commitment in cooperative arrangements in migrant-sending communities. |
| Keywords: | International Migration, Social Capital, Networks, Group Participation, Mozambique |
| JEL: | O17 O15 O12 |
| Date: | 2009–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:279&r=mig |
| By: | Giovanni Facchini (Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Milan, CEPR, LdA and CES-Ifo); Anna Maria Mayda (Georgetown University, CEPR, IZA, CReAM and LdA) |
| Abstract: | It is commonly argued that skilled immigration benefits the destination country through several channels. Yet, only a small group of countries reports to have policies in place aimed at increasing the intake of skilled immigrants. Why? In this paper we analyze the factors that affect a direct measure of individual attitudes towards skilled migration, focusing on two main channels: the labor market and the welfare state. We find that more educated natives are less likely to favor skilled immigration - consistent with the labor-market channel – while richer people are more likely to do so – in accordance with the welfare state channel under the tax adjustment model. Our findings thus suggest that the labor market competition threat perceived by skilled natives in the host countries might be driving the observed cautious policies. |
| Keywords: | Skilled Immigration, Attitudes, Immigration Policy, Political Economy |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2009–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:281&r=mig |
| By: | Rachel M. Friedberg (Brown University and NBER); David A. Jaeger (University of Cologne, City University of New York Graduate Center and IZA) |
| Abstract: | While it is well known that some areas of the United States receive more immigrants than others, less is understood about the extent to which the character of immigration varies as well. There is much broader geographic variation in the skill and demographic composition of immigrants than natives, with important implications for their economic effects. This paper provides a new perspective by focusing on heterogeneity in outcomes such as the share of population growth due to immigration, the presence of immigrant children in schools, and the effect of immigration on the age, sex, language, and educational composition of the local population and workforce. |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:200931&r=mig |
| By: | Giulia Bettin (Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI), Germany); Riccardo Lucchetti (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, Department of Economics); Alberto Zazzaro (Universit… Politecnica delle Marche, Department of Economics, MoFiR) |
| Abstract: | For many countries, remittance behaviour by migrants is an important component of their overall international financial flows. To date, the empirical literature has analysed the propensity to remit as a function of migrants' socio-economic characteristics. However, no studies have fully addressed the empirical implications of remittance behaviour being determined in the broader context of migrants' labour, income and consumption allocation strategy. On the contrary, the migrant's income has almost always been treated as exogenous in this context. The aim of this study is to estimate a remittance equation that detects the main determinants of remittance behaviour while addressing endogeneity and reverse causality relationships between remittances, income, consumption and savings. Moreover, since a large share of individuals do not remit money at all, an instrumental variable variant of the double-hurdle selection model is proposed and estimated by LIML.;A sending country perspective is adopted in the empirical analysis by considering the first cohort of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia. We find that endogeneity is substantial and that estimates obtained by the methods previously employed in the literature may be very misleading if given a behavioural interpretation. Our results confirm some theoretical predictions and shed light on others; notably, we show that "selfish" motives in remitters are at least as important as "altruistic" motives. |
| Keywords: | Double-hurdle model, migation, remittances |
| JEL: | C21 C24 F22 F24 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wmofir:34&r=mig |
| By: | William Joe |
| Abstract: | Migration decisions to urban areas that are backed by economic rationale and attempts to understand gains accruing to individuals from migration, in terms of poverty outcomes are analysed. The analysis is based on the 55th round survey data on Employment - Unemployment Survey 1999-2000 (EUS) provided by the National Sample Survey Organisation. A broad descriptive socio-economic profiling of the migrant households in urban India and explore the dynamics of poverty among interstate as well as intrastate migrants to urban destinations are undertaken. [WP 414]. |
| Keywords: | migration, urban areas, economic, developing countries individuals, poverty, employment, Unemployment Survey, socio-economic, migrant, households, India, urban, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2287&r=mig |
| By: | Giovanni Peri |
| Abstract: | Using the large variation in the inflow of immigrants across US states we analyze the impact of immigration on state employment, average hours worked, physical capital accumulation and, most importantly, total factor productivity and its skill bias. We use the location of a state relative to the Mexican border and to the main ports of entry, as well as the existence of communities of immigrants before 1960, as instruments. We find no evidence that immigrants crowded-out employment and hours worked by natives. At the same time we find robust evidence that they increased total factor productivity, on the one hand, while they decreased capital intensity and the skill-bias of production technologies, on the other. These results are robust to controlling for several other determinants of productivity that may vary with geography such as R&D spending, computer adoption, international competition in the form of exports and sector composition. Our results suggest that immigrants promoted efficient task specialization, thus increasing TFP and, at the same time, promoted the adoption of unskilled-biased technology as the theory of directed technologial change would predict. Combining these effects, an increase in employment in a US state of 1% due to immigrants produced an increase in income per worker of 0.5% in that state. |
| JEL: | F22 J61 R11 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15507&r=mig |
| By: | Rao, B. Bhaskara; Hassan, Gazi |
| Abstract: | Development economists believe that migrant workers’ remittances are an important source of funds for long run growth. Therefore, recent studies have investigated the growth effects of remittances and reached different conclusions. In many such studies the growth of output is simply regressed on both remittances and the channels through which remittances affect growth. Thus there is no distinction between the indirect and direct growth effects of remittances and such specifications may give unreliable estimates because of the correlation between the channels and remittances. In this paper we make a distinction between the indirect and direct effects of remittances. Our model is estimated with panel data of 40 high remittance recipient countries and a system GMM panel data estimation method. |
| Keywords: | Remittances; Growth; Panel Data; System GMM |
| JEL: | F22 O16 F43 |
| Date: | 2009–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18641&r=mig |