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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Libman, Alexander; Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten; Yadav, Gaurav |
| Abstract: | The aim of the paper is to study the relation between the demand for human rights and for economic prosperity. It analyzes the demand not, as it is often done in the literature, from the 'voice' perspective (political activity), but rather looks at the 'exit' perspective (migration patterns). Given the difficulties associated with identification in international samples we study the intra-national migration in a federation with significant economic and political differences between states - India. The paper finds that quality of human rights protection and economic well-being are substitutes when determining the patterns of migration: lower number of human rights violations acts as a 'pull' factor for individual states only if the income per capita is small enough; increasing economic well-being political regimes seem to be able to 'buy acceptance' of the lower quality of human rights. The results are robust to various specifications and estimation approaches. -- |
| Keywords: | democracy,human rights,economic well-being,Indian states,migration |
| JEL: | D72 D78 O43 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fsfmwp:163&r=mig |
| By: | Dozi, Pedro V.; Valdivia, Corinne |
| Keywords: | Institutional and Behavioral Economics, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103417&r=mig |
| By: | Costa, Rafael; Susanto, Dwi; Rosson, C. Parr |
| Abstract: | The United States dairy industry is heavily dependent on foreign labor. Current and newly proposed U.S. immigration policies have been appointed to disrupt the agricultural labor availability, especially that of hired foreign labor. A national survey of dairy farmers across herd sizes and regions of the U.S. was conducted for the year 2009 and the results were used to evaluate the extent to which hired foreign labor dependence will affect the exit intentions in dairy farming. The political affiliation of dairy farmers was based on the 2008 election map and their locations. Our findings indicate that the expected probability of exit from dairy farming increased as the use of hired foreign labor intensified. Results also suggest that states with Republican political affiliation has a greater probability of exiting dairy operations with more stricter immigration laws. |
| Keywords: | immigration, political affiliation, foreign labor, exit intention, dairy industry., Farm Management, Financial Economics, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103583&r=mig |
| By: | Zhou, Xia (Vivian) |
| Abstract: | The idea of elderly in-migrants as an important factor or stimulus to local economic development (Serow, 2001) has been confirmed by quite a few studies such as Bennett (1993); Carlson, Junk, Fox, Rudzitis, & Cann (1998); Day & Barlett (2000); Hodge (1991); Serow & Haas (1992); and Stallmann, Deller, & Shields (1999). Large-scale elderly in-migrants can bring several benefits to local economy. First, they can increase property and sales taxes, counties' largest source of revenues, without directly increasing their greatest expense such as public education; also, in-migrant retirees as a large portion of elderly do not compete for jobs so that most of counties consider them as net economic assets (Day & Barlett, 2000; Glasgow, 1991; Graff & Wiseman, 1990; Rowles & Watkins, 1993; Schneider & Green, 1992). Second, large-scale elderly in-migrants can increase local sales and capital pool through investments and savings (Campbell, 2005). Third, they can stimulate job creation and service development (Campbell, 2005). Thus, more and more counties are competing for elderly in-migrants as a source of local economic development. The question of what factors attract elderly in-migrants has been put forwarded by county governors who need to make good strategies or policies to pull them in. However, most previous studies on analyzing those factors of elderly in-migrants have been focused from macro levels such as national perspective, southern US, or state level. Little research has been conducted from a micro level of counties which are increasingly competing for elderly in-migrants with each other. The objective of this study is to determine the factors to attract elderly in-migrants from the perspective of counties in Tennessee. The main contribution of this study is to find out the county characteristics in Tennessee that attract elderly in-migrants and then provide policy implications for county governors on how to pull them in. Literatures such as Serow et al (1996 and 2001), Longino (1995), Newbold (1996), Campbell (2005), Gabriel and Rosenthal (2000) provide intuition and background for empirical models used to do the regression analysis in this paper. According to these studies, the factors of elderly in-migrants, in terms of county characteristics, include economic and non economic aspects such as income, employment, taxes, education, safety/crime rates, population (or population density), and elderly population rate. Based on these factors, the following empirical models are set up to do the regression analysis. A linear fixed-effect model is the conceptual model for this paper, instead of random effect model, because only individuals of the sample obtained are focused on and inferences are drawn restricted to these individuals within the sample (Baltagi, 2005). In other words, the linear fixed-effect model is an appropriate specification for this paper because the sample selected in this paper includes all the counties in Tennessee so that the sample is not randomly selected. Also, only those counties in Tennessee are focused on, and inferences are drawn restricted to those counties in Tennessee. Furthermore, Hausman tests are conducted in the next section to confirm that fixed-effect models should be used instead of random effect models (Baltagi, 2005). Two groups of linear fixed-effect empirical models are used to do the regression analysis. The dependent variable for the first group is in migration rate (per 100 persons) of the 60-plus cohort, which is interpreted as a percentage; and the dependent variable for the second group is in migration rate (per 100 persons) of the 67-plus cohort, which is interpreted as a percentage. The independent variables for the two groups include percentage of people with 65-plus over the whole population, percentage share of police expenditure over total expenditure, percentage share of highway expenditure over total expenditure, percentage of white people over the whole population, percentage of population with high school degree over the whole population, medium family income, property tax assessment, employment, population or population density, county dummy, and year dummies. Data is county level and collected through US Census Bureau. The data includes ninety-five counties in Tennessee for five years of 1962, 1972, 1982, 1992, and 2002 (see table 2 for data statistics summary). Also, the data is balanced except that in migration rate (per 100 persons) of the 67-plus cohort for 2002 cannot be obtained. 475 observations are used to be regressed for the first group of models and 380 observations are used to be regressed for the second group since data for 2002 has to be dropped for the second group. Stata software is applied to do the regression for the two groups of fixed-effect models. The results indicate that the elderly in-migration rate is positively correlated to the share of elderly people over the whole population, the rate of people with high school degree, medium family income, and population (or population density). Also, it is no difference in terms of the results either population or population density is used as one of the independent variables. County governors could make appropriate strategies or policies to pull those elderly in according to the results by improving amenities or life quality for elderly in each county. The weakness of this paper is that it is hard to test the endogeneity of independent variables because 1) there is no instrumental variables so that the hausman test result calculated from the difference between the original model and 2SLS cannot be conducted; and 2) it is hard to get all the factors out of the error term as explanatory variables and as a result, it is difficult not to allow correlation between the explanatory variables and unobserved factors in the error term. |
| Keywords: | Elderly In-Migrants, Fixed-Effect Model, and Tennessee, Community/Rural/Urban Development, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103447&r=mig |
| By: | Marina Murat; Barbara Pistoresi; Alberto Rinaldi |
| Abstract: | Emigrant associations abroad are structured nodes of social networks; they are manifestations of a transnational social capital. Italian associations are numerous, spread across several countries, in some cases they exist since the end of the nineteenth century, and may count on high numbers of members. Also, they are robustly tied to the home country. This paper assesses the effects of Italian associations abroad on the bilateral FDI between Italy and the countries of settlement of Italian diaspora. The main results are that these effects are positive and strongly significant, especially for the inward FDI and relatively to the countries with the oldest associations. |
| Keywords: | international migration; FDI; Italy |
| JEL: | F21 F23 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:recent:058&r=mig |
| By: | Moritz Bonn (University of Siegen) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of high skilled immigration on employment and net income in the receiving economy where the market for low skilled labour is distorted by union wage setting and a redistributive unemployment benefit scheme. Based on the empirical fact that high and low skilled workers are close albeit imperfect substitutes, we show that high skilled immigration can either be beneficial or harmful, both in terms of employment and net income. More precisely, we conclude that a Pareto improvement can be achieved if the unemployment benefit level remains unaffected by high skilled immigration whereas an overall loss in net income cannot be ruled out if we suggest unemployment benefits to be funded by an exogenous egalitarian tax rate. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Imperfect Labour Markets, Fiscal Redistribution |
| JEL: | F22 H53 J51 J61 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mar:magkse:201121&r=mig |
| By: | Kumo, Kazuhiro; Horie, Norio; Ryazantsev, Sergei V. |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hituec:b39&r=mig |
| By: | Castelhano, Michael; Lin, C.-Y. Cynthia; Taylor, J. Edward |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103922&r=mig |
| By: | Ward, Patrick S.; Shively, Gerald E. |
| Abstract: | Households in developing countries take various actions to smooth income or consumption as a means of managing or responding to risk. One of the principal means of smoothing income is through the diversification of income sources, including non-farm employment and rural-urban migration. An important consumption smoothing strategy involves the accumulation and depletion of assets. We examine migration and land rental market participation as responses to risk in rural China. Using a longitudinal data set comprised of households in nine provinces in China from 1991 through 2006, we are able to test for the effect of various manifestations of underlying idiosyncratic and covariate income risk on household responses. We find that covariate risks increase land rental market participation, but decrease participation in migration. Idiosyncratic income risks do not affect household rental market participation, perhaps suggesting that intra-village risk sharing is sufficient for households to smooth consumption after experiencing idiosyncratic shocks. Because the death of a household reduces a household's redundant labor, these idiosyncratic labor shocks significantly lower the likelihood that a household will participate in migration. |
| Keywords: | China, risk, consumption smoothing, income smoothing, International Development, Labor and Human Capital, Risk and Uncertainty, O15, R23, Q15, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103379&r=mig |
| By: | Mueller, Elisabeth |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how companies of immigrant entrepreneurs in knowledgeintensive industries differ from companies of native entrepreneurs with respect to start-up characteristics, firm survival and innovative performance. I focus on immigrants from the 'recruitment countries' of south and southeast Europe, who arrived in Germany mainly in the 1970s to fill labor shortages. They are the largest immigrant group in Germany and can be reliably identified via ethnic name coding. Immigrant entrepreneurs are less than half as likely to found a company in a knowledge-intensive industry as native entrepreneurs. Firms owned exclusively by immigrants tend to be smaller and have higher exit rates. After controlling for resources, I found no differences in patenting activity compared to firms owned exclusively by natives. Firms in mixed immigrant/native ownership have no size disadvantage. In that group, exit rates are higher in services but not in manufacturing, and, again, there are no differences in patenting when resources are taken into account. The lower participation of immigrant entrepreneurs in knowledge-intensive industries can be explained by lower education levels, while smaller firm sizes suggest more limited access to capital. -- |
| Keywords: | immigrants,innovation,entrepreneurship,knowledge-intensive industries |
| JEL: | O32 O34 M13 J15 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:11030&r=mig |
| By: | Salas Garcia, Vania Bitia; Findeis, Jill L. |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103495&r=mig |
| By: | Jordan, Jeffrey; Mykerezi, Elton; Kostandini, Genti; Mills, Bradford |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103938&r=mig |
| By: | Perakis, Sonja Melissa |
| Abstract: | Exogenous shocks resulting from the death of household members, changing agroclimatic conditions and financial loss can have both short-term as well as lingering effects on households. Many poor households in developing countries cope with these shocks through the out-migration of family members. Migration and remittances can serve to smooth consumption for households affected by adverse shocks as well as overcome liquidity constraints in order to finance long-term human and physical capital investments. The inflow of remittances from international (external) migration and their potential development impacts has captured the attention of researchers for some time. This is due in part to the sheer magnitude of these financial flows, which has dwarfed official development assistance in many cases (Maimbo and Ratha, 2005). While domestic (internal) seasonal migration is also an important livelihood strategy, the short and long-term impact of remittance flows from this channel has received less attention in recent research, particularly in Africa. Several recent studies have investigated the determinants and effects of migration and remittances (M&R) in Africa (Azam and Gubert, 2005; Gubert, 2002; Dillon et al., 2010). Harrower and Hoddinot (2005) use data from northern Mali to test both the responsiveness of self-reported household coping mechanisms (including migration) to idiosyncratic shocks as well as the full-insurance hypothesis put forth by Townsend (1995). In this context, full insurance implies that household-level consumption should be perfectly correlated with aggregate consumption in the village (or other co-insurance group) but uncorrelated with household-level fluctuations in income. These studies conclude that the decisions to migrate and remit are indeed responsive to household risk and shocks. Azam and Gubert (2005) use household-level data from Western Mali, with a long history international migration to Europe, to test for moral hazard on the part of households âleft behindâ. They find that the more households are insured by migrantsâ remittances, the less incentive those households have to work. This study uses six periods of panel survey data spanning a decade (1996-1998 and 2005- 2006) on approximately 250 households in the arid Zone Lacustre (ZL) of Northern Mali. Households in the ZL rely primarily on rain-fed cereal production for their livelihood. Our objective is to evaluate both the short-run and persistent effects of migration and remittancesâ which are hypothesized to contribute to both inter-temporal consumption smoothing and human and physical capital investment. This study expands upon the previous studies outlined above, but makes several important distinctions that help to improve our understanding of the impacts of M&R in Africa. First, M&R decisions are both ex-ante and ex-post mechanisms to cope with observable and unobservable household shocks and therefore endogenous within the context of Townsendâs (1995) full-insurance hypothesis test. We therefore pay close attention to the identification strategy of the parameters associated with these two key variables using an instrumental variable approach. Second, we recognize that households have different motivations for choosing seasonal versus long-term out-migration, and we estimate the different impacts of each. Third, there are several reasons why we might expect to find that M&R result in diminished consumption smoothing across time. For example, remittances may lead to increases in overall income (and expenditures) or changes in the basket of food and non-food items consumed through increased direct or indirect exposure to alternative consumption habits. Either of these are avenues through which households may shift away from their village co-insurance group. Thanks to the structure of our data, we are able to analyze on the one hand whether consumption-smoothing trends for several categories of goods (non-food, food, and cereals) are comparable both prior to and following migration. We are likewise interested in the potential explanations for diverging trends and go on to examine the effect of past migration on the levelof consumption for those same categories of goods. This study uses three approaches to evaluate the effects of remittances on households in Northern Mali. First, in order to establish whether or not remittances are indeed responsive to household shocks, we first use both a linear and non-linear estimators to evaluate the responsiveness of remittances to current and lagged exogenous shocks (e.g. crop and livestock losses, household morbidity and mortality). Second, following Jalan and Ravallion (1998) we test the full-insurance hypothesis within a first-differenced framework. However, several of our key variables are endogenous to such a model potentially resulting in biased parameter estimates. We therefore adopt and an instrumental variable approach to identify the parameters associated with those key variables, with current and lagged environmental shocks, household size, seasonal rainfall variation and migrant network intensity as instruments for income, household size and migration duration respectively (deBrauw and Giles, 2008; Dillon et al., 2010; Munshi, 2003; Yang and Choi, 2007). The third component of the analysis uses a similar IV approach to investigate on the one hand whether there are diverging trends in consumption smoothing b and consumption levels, more generally, before and after migration. Preliminary econometric results suggest that the probability of migrants remitting increases for female-headed households as well as for households experiencing health and income (crop) shocks. The level of remittances received is higher for female-headed households, for households experiencing the death of a family member and with livestock losses during the hungry season. Once we control for the endogeneity of the key variables in consumption smoothing equation, migrant-sending households are more able to self-insure than those without migrants. Households with long-term migrants are able to self-insure to the greatest degree. These findings are reversed when we ignore the potential endogeneity of income, household composition and migration patterns. This is likely because these variables are correlated with unobservable factors such as ability on the one hand and householdsâ ability to modify their size and composition by sending members away during periods of distress. We find that the patterns of consumption smoothing as well as the levels of consumption before and following migration vary considerable across goods. This provides some evidence that the role of village-level insurance mechanisms vary for a given household depending on whether they participate in seasonal or long-term out-migration or not. The role of internal migration in the process of economic development in West Africa has received limited attention. In parts of Mali (namely the Kayes region) international out-migration is not just an important livelihood strategy, but in many cases, it is the livelihood strategyâ thereby undermining the development of the local economy. This research demonstrates that remittances sent through internal migration (which constitutes the bulk of out-migration from the Zone Lacustre) are indeed responsive to exogenous household-level shocks. In addition, we find that M&R play a role in short-run smoothing consumption but that the persistent effects of these activities on both consumption smoothing and consumption levels are more important, particularly for households with low purchasing power. |
| Keywords: | Labor and Human Capital, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea11:103704&r=mig |
| By: | Timo Mitze; Janina Reinkowski |
| Abstract: | This paper tests the empirical validity of the neoclassical migration model in predicting German internal migration flows. We estimate static and dynamic migration functions for 97 Spatial Planning Regions between 1996 and 2006 using key labor market signals including income and unemployment differences among a broader set of explanatory variables. Besides an aggregate specification we also estimate the model for agegroup related subsamples. Our results give empirical support for the main transmission channels identified by the neoclassical framework – both at the aggregate level as well as for age-group specific estimates. Thereby, the impact of labor market signals is tested to be of greatest magnitude for workforce relevant age-groups and especially young cohorts between 18 to 25 and 25 to 30 years. This latter result underlines the prominent role played by labor market conditions in determining internal migration rates of the working population in Germany. |
| Keywords: | German internal migration; Harris-Todaro Model; dynamic panel data |
| JEL: | R23 C31 C33 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0226&r=mig |
| By: | Kazuhiro Kumo |
| Abstract: | For the four years since 2006, Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic, has led the world in the receipt of foreign remittance as a proportion of GDP. Needless to say, key reasons for this are the low income levels in Tajikistan and the country's special relationship with Russia, which is enjoying rapid economic growth. Yet while interest in the relationship between migration and foreign remittance has existed for a long time, not many studies have looked at this region. This paper used household survey forms from two points in time to profile households in Tajikistan and international labour migration by Tajiks, and examined the relationship between household income levels in Tajikistan, the poorest of the former Soviet republics, and foreign remittance being received from international labour migrants and the likelihood of migrants being supplied. It found no correlation between household income levels and amounts of money received from abroad, which suggests that altruistic models of the relationship between migration and remittance do not apply. Moreover, it also found that households with high incomes are more likely to supply migrants, indicating that international labour migration from Tajikistan may not be conductive to reducing poverty in that country. |
| JEL: | O15 P46 R23 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd10-182&r=mig |
| By: | Heiwai Tang (Tufts University and Centro Studi Luca d\'Agliano); Stan Hok-Wui Wong (Chinese University of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how immigration affects native wages by exploiting an unexpected episode of immigrant influx. The episode happened in Hong Kong, when its government unexpectedly relaxed the restriction on immigration from mainland China in 1993, resulting in a seven-fold increase in the net inflow of Chinese immigrants between 1992 and 1993. We use variation in the employment share of immigrants across occupations for identification. To tackle endogeneity between wages and immigrant inflows across occupations, we use Welch’s (1999) congruence indices, which capture the degree of substitutability between workers from different skill groups, to construct instruments for the prevalence of Chinese immigrants in an occupation. Using micro-level data, our two-stage-least-squares estimates show that a 1 percentage point increase in the ratio of new Chinese immigrants to natives decreases native monthly real wages in the same occupation by 2.8-3.6 percents (controlling for immigrant shocks in similar occupations). Within an occupation, female and more skilled native workers experience more adverse wage impact, reflecting a high switching cost associated with occupation-specific human capital. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Labor Market Outcomes, Occupation-specific Human Capital |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2011–05–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:308&r=mig |
| By: | Nordin, Martin (Department of Economics, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | Recent research has shown that there is a substantial skill difference in Sweden between natives and second-generation immigrants. The objective of this study is to find out whether there exists a relationship between ethnic school segregation and the individual’s human capital. The variation in ethnic concentration rate between cohorts within a school generally does not affect the individual’s human capital outcome. However when estimating specific peer influences between different ethnic groups (first-generation immigrants, second generation immigrants with two foreign-born parent and second generation immigrants with one foreign-born parent) the study shows three major findings. First, for men (both natives and second-generation immigrants) there is a general negative effect of having a large share of first-generation immigrant schoolmates. Second, for both men and women a large share of schoolmates with a completely foreign background (non-native parents) has a negative influence on the Swedish grades of second-generation immigrants with two foreign-born parents. Third, for men there seem to exist specific and positive peer influences within the groups of second-generation immigrants with either one or two foreign-born parents. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic Segregation; second-generation immigrants; human capital test score gap |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2011–04–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2011_014&r=mig |
| By: | Cespedes, Nikita (University of Rochester) |
| Abstract: | Developing countries have experienced an outstanding outflow of skilled workers (brain- drain) over the last several decades. Additionally, migrants tend to be tied to their country of birth, since they send a large amount of remittances to their relatives. Furthermore, migration is not permanent, since a considerable number of workers return to their country of birth after a migration spell. In this paper we develop a model that is consistent with these facts. We use our model to address some important issues in the migration literature from a theoretical perspective. We study the general equilibrium effects of migration, its long-term effects, and its welfare effects, and we see whether the joint effect of return migration and remittances is strong enough to offset the effects of skilled migration. Finally, we evaluate the effectiveness of policy interventions that attempts to offset the effects of a brain drain. |
| Keywords: | Migration, General Equilibrium, Brain drain, Remittances, Heterogeneous Agents |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rbp:wpaper:2011-007&r=mig |
| By: | Frédéric DOCQUIER (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)); Hillel RAPOPORT (Department of Economics, Bar-Ilan University, EQUIPPE and Center for International Development, Harvard University); Sara SALOMONE (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES) and Tor Vergat University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relationship between remittances and migrants' education both theoretically and empirically, using original bilateral remittance data. At a theoretical level we lay out a simple model of remittances interacting migrants' human capital with two dimensions of immigration policy: restrictiveness, and selectivity. The model predicts that the relationship between remittances and migrants' education will be inversed-U shaped, with the increasing segment being longer (resp. shorter) for more restrictive (resp. selective) immigration policies. These predictions are then tested empirically using bilateral remittance and migration data and proxy measures for the restrictiveness and selectivity of immigration policies at destination. The results strongly support the theoretical analysis, suggesting that immigration policies determine the sign and magnitude of the relationship between remittances and migrants' education. |
| Keywords: | Remittances, Migration, Brain Drain, Immigration Policy |
| JEL: | F24 F22 O15 J61 |
| Date: | 2011–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2011012&r=mig |