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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Tsujita, Yuko; Oda, Hisaya |
| Abstract: | This paper explores migration from Bihar, one of the most underdeveloped states in India, by paying particular attention to social class (caste) and landholdings. After describing details of individual migrants, we present our preliminary findings on the determinants of migration, based on our field survey of 200 households in four villages in 2011. In terms of social class, Muslims are more likely to migrate, but Scheduled Castes do not show a high propensity to migrate as is stated in some of the existing literature where the underclass is said to be more mobile. In terms of landholdings, the probability that someone will migrate is high among the landless and smaller landholders but it decreases as the size of the landholding increases. However, as the size of the landholding increases still further, a reverse effect of landholding on decisions regarding migration moves in, with the decline in probability becoming less and less. This result confirms a non-linear relationship between landholdings and the decision to migrate. Some further research questions are raised in the paper. |
| Keywords: | India, Population movement, Caste, Social strata, Land tenure, Rural societies, Migration, Land, Bihar |
| JEL: | O15 Q15 R23 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper334&r=mig |
| By: | Paolo Lucchino; Chiara Rosazza Bondibene; Jonathan Portes |
| Abstract: | Immigration has been central in recent UK policy debates and has attracted significant concern over its possible adverse effect on labour market outcomes. This paper contributes to the evidence on this issue by presenting initial results on the impact of migration inflows on the claimant count rate using previously unused data on National Insurance Number registrations of foreign nationals. Our results, which appear robust to different specifications, different levels of geographic aggregation, and to a number of tests, seem to confirm the lack of any impact of migration on unemployment in aggregate. We find no association between migrant inflows and claimant unemployment. In addition, we test for whether the impact of migration on claimant unemployment varies according to the state of the economic cycle. We find no evidence of a more adverse during periods of low growth or the recent recession. |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:386&r=mig |
| By: | Greg Kaplan; Sam Schulhofer-Wohl |
| Abstract: | We analyze the secular decline in interstate migration in the United States between 1991 and 2011. Gross flows of people across states are about 10 times larger than net flows, yet have declined by around 50 percent over the past 20 years. We show that micro data rule out many popular explanations for this decline, including aging of the population, the rise of two-earner households, other compositional changes, regional changes, and the rise in real incomes. We argue instead that the fall in migration is due to a decline in the geographic specificity of occupations and an increase in workers’ ability to learn about other locations before moving there, through both information technology and inexpensive travel. We develop a theory to formalize these ideas and show that a plausibly calibrated version is consistent with cross-sectional and time-series patterns of interstate migration, occupations, and incomes. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmwp:697&r=mig |
| By: | Alex Bryson; Simmons, R.; Rossi, G. |
| Abstract: | In efficient global labour markets for very high wage workers one might expect wage differentials between migrant and domestic workers to reflect differences in labour productivity. However, using panel data on worker-firm matches in a single industry over a seven year period we find a substantial wage penalty for domestic workers which persists within firms and is only partially accounted for by individual labour productivity. We show that the differential partly reflects the superstar status of migrant workers. This superstar effect is also apparent in migrant effects on firm performance. But the wage differential also reflects domestic workers' preferences for working in their home region, an amenity for which they are prepared to take a compensating wage differential, or else are forced to accept in the face of employer monopsony power which does not affect migrant workers. |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:388&r=mig |
| By: | Dawn Holland; Tatiana Fic; Pawel Paluchowski; Ana Rincon-Aznar; Lucy Stokes |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:379&r=mig |
| By: | Parsons, Christopher R. |
| Abstract: | Despite the burgeoning empirical literature providing evidence of a strong and robust positive correlation between trade and migration, doubts persist as to unobserved factors which may be driving this relationship. This paper re-examines the trade-migration nexus using a panel spanning several decades, which comprises the majority of world trade and migration in every decade. First the findings common to the literature are reproduced. Country-pair fixed effects are then used to account for unobserved bilateral factors, the implementation of which removes all of the positive impact of migration on trade. In other words the unobserved factors, a leading candidate for which it is argued is international bilateral ties, are on average strongly and positively correlated with migrant networks. Dividing the world into the relatively affluent North and poorer South, the results show that migrants from either region only affect Northern exports to the South. This is intuitive since in general countries of the North export more differentiated products and information barriers between these regions are greatest. A country-level analysis further shows that migrants may both create and divert trade. Taken as a whole, the results demonstrate the large biases inherent in cross-sectional studies investigating the trade-migration nexus and highlight the extent to which previous results have been overstated. |
| Keywords: | Free Trade,Economic Theory&Research,Trade Law,Trade Policy,Emerging Markets |
| Date: | 2012–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6034&r=mig |
| By: | Eberhard, Juan |
| Abstract: | I analyze the effect of an unexpected influx of immigrants on the price of skill and hence on the earnings, human capital accumulation and educational attainment of native workers. In order to study these effects, I develop a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous workers who differ in their level of skill and in their ability to learn new skills. These workers accumulate human capital optimally using information about the current and future market price of skill to guide their decisions. To assess the impact of immigration, I compare simulated earnings in the presence of immigration with a series of counterfactual experiments. My findings suggest that immigration has a small negative direct effect on earnings, but a positive and relatively large impact indirectly through human capital accumulation and educational attainment. This latter mechanism explains 60% of the variations in earnings caused by immigration. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital; Immigration; Heterogeneous Agents |
| JEL: | D31 E24 J61 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:37844&r=mig |
| By: | Stark, Oded; Byra, Lukasz |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the impact of the international migration of unskilled workers on skill formation and the average skill level in the home country. We analyze what appears to be the least threatening scenario from the point of view of its effect on the supply of skills at home: namely, migration exclusively by unskilled workers. Somewhat surprisingly, we find that even without the departure of skilled workers, the home country suffers reduced aggregate skill formation. Although as a response to a higher wage rate per unit of human capital in the new equilibrium skilled workers choose to accumulate more human capital than before the opening up to migration of unskilled workers, the number and share of skilled workers in the home country’s workforce fall. The combined effect is a decrease in the average level of human capital in the home country. |
| Keywords: | Migration of unskilled workers, Human capital formation, Depletion of human capital, Labor and Human Capital, F22, J24, O15, |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ubzefd:122433&r=mig |
| By: | Heinrich R. Bohlmann (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria) |
| Abstract: | South African authorities are attempting to limit inflows of illegal immigrants. Evidence for the United States presented in Dixon et al (2011) suggests that a policy-induced reduction in labour supply from illegal immigrants generates a welfare loss for legal residents. I use a similar labour market mechanism within a dynamic CGE model for South Africa, but take into consideration a number of well-known facts about the local economy. With high unemployment rates among low skilled workers and a legal minimum wage in place, I find a net gain in employment and welfare for legal residents in South Africa when reducing the inflow of illegal immigrants. |
| Keywords: | Illegal immigration, dynamic CGE modelling |
| JEL: | J61 C68 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:201213&r=mig |
| By: | Richard Brown (School of Economics, The University of Queensland); Gareth Leeves; Prabha Prayaga (School of Economics, The University of Queensland) |
| Abstract: | We report initial findings from a household survey of Pacific island migrants and their remittances, conducted in 2010-11 in New South Wales (NSW). The study covers three Polynesian communities, Samoans and Tongans as in previous studies, but also Cook Islanders. We cover migrants in both Sydney and regional NSW. We quantify remittances of all types, formally and informally transferred, and distinguish those sent to households and organizations (mainly churches) or invested, beyond the migrants’ home country household, which account for almost 40% of total remittances. We provide the first estimates of remittances to Cook Islands since the mid-eighties, and the first estimates of remittances from regional areas in Australia. We investigate a number of potential socio-economic determinants of remittance behavior including the migrants’ income, duration of absence, strength of ties to home country, and major events in home country and Australia. We identify a number of important differences among the three groups, and between the Riverina- and Sydney-based communities. Areas for further research from this dataset are identified. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:457&r=mig |
| By: | Bichaka Fayissa; Christian Nsiah |
| Abstract: | In view of the sizable increase in recorded migrant workers’ remittances to developing countries from $70 billion in 2000 to $167 in 2005, this study investigates the long-run relationship between remittances and financial services development (FSD) and control variables including exchange rate (ERS), the size of migrant stock (MSK), the domestic per capita income (DPC) in the receiving country and foreign per capita income (FPC) in the main host country. We use a newly developed panel fully modified OLS (PFMOLS) on annual panel data over the 1985-2007 period for 44 countries consisting of 25 from Africa and 19 from the Americas. It is found that financial development, exchange rate stability, and the size of migrant stock have positive and statistically significant effect on remittances in both regions and in each of the regions. The study has important policy implications for the role of the financial services development through domestic credit expansion by the banking industry as well as increased competition among money transfer operations and exchange rate stability in order to promote the continuation of remittance inflows as a major source of economic growth in Africa and the Americas. The study also shows that there are regional differences in the impact and magnitude of the determinants of remittances. |
| Keywords: | Workers’ Remittances, Transaction Cost Factors, Per Capita income, Unit-Root tests, Error Correction Model, PFMOOLS, Panel Data, Africa and the Americas |
| JEL: | E21 F21 G22 J61 O16 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mts:wpaper:201201&r=mig |