|
on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Oloufade, Djoulassi K.; Pongou, Roland |
| Abstract: | The right to hold dual citizenship is an important political institution that is being adopted by an increasing number of countries. We argue that this institution can generate important social and economic benefits beyond its political dimension. Dual citizenship recognition by a country allows members of its diaspora who are citizens of their host countries to retain several legal advantages in their homelands, including unrestricted residency and easy access to investment opportunities, and provides multiple incentives to maintain ties with family, friends and communities, therefore facilitating the development of transnational solidarity and business networks. We assemble a large panel dataset on dual citizenship, and exploit cross-country and cross-time variation in the timing of dual citizenship recognition to estimate its economic impacts. We find that in developing countries, dual citizenship recognition increases foreign remittance inflows by US$1.19 billion, raises GDP and household consumption, favors international labor mobility, and improves child survival. Additionally, dual citizenship is more effective in improving child survival than other institutional variables such as government stability and the absence of internal and external conflicts. In developed countries, dual citizenship recognition decreases remittance inflows by US$1.44 billion, but increases gross capital formation and foreign direct investment by US$12 trillion and US$828 billion, respectively, raises household consumption, fosters trade, and provides incentives for low- and high-skilled workers to move to foreign countries. Expatriates living in dual citizenship-granting countries positively affect economic outcomes in their origin countries. We find no effect of dual citizenship recognition on public spending on health and education, which suggests that the diaspora plays little role in homeland politics. |
| Keywords: | Dual Citizenship Legislation; Private International Relations; Trade; Foreign Remittances; Investment; Child Survival; Institutions; Economic Development |
| JEL: | H0 F2 P4 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40705&r=mig |
| By: | Ernest Miguele (Economics and Statistics Division, WIPO; AQR-IREA, University of Barcelona.); Rosina Moreno (AQR-IREA, University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | The goal of this paper is twofold: first, we aim to assess the role played by inventors’ cross-regional mobility and networks of collaboration in fostering knowledge diffusion across regions and subsequent innovation. Second, we intend to evaluate the feasibility of using mobility and networks information to build cross-regional interaction matrices to be used within the spatial econometrics toolbox. To do so, we depart from a knowledge production function where regional innovation intensity is a function not only of the own regional innovation inputs but also external accessible R&D gained through interregional interactions. Differently from much of the previous literature, cross-section gravity models of mobility and networks are estimated to use the fitted values to build our ‘spatial’ weights matrices, which characterize the intensity of knowledge interactions across a panel of 269 regions covering most European countries over 6 years. |
| Keywords: | inventors’ spatial mobility, co-patenting, gravity models, weights matrix, knowledge production function. |
| JEL: | C8 J61 O31 O33 R0 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrp:wpaper:xreap2012-14&r=mig |
| By: | Kostandini, Genti; Mykerezi, Elton; Escalante, Cesar L. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of state and local immigration enforcement efforts on the U.S. Farming sector. We use variation in enforcement efforts generated by the timing of adoption of 287(g) programs by state and county law enforcement agencies (allowing local officers to be trained to perform several immigration officer duties). Nearly 70 jurisdictions adopted such measures between 2002 and 2011. Difference in Differences (DD) models are estimated using individual level data from the 2004-2010 waves of the American Community Survey (ACS) and county level data from the 1997, 2002 and 2007 waves of the U.S. Census of Agriculture. We found robust evidence that immigration enforcement efforts by county authorities have reduced immigrant presence. We also found evidence that wages of farm workers, general patterns of labor use in farms and farm proffitability may have been affected in a manner consistent with labor shortages. There is no clear evidence that state efforts have lead to notable effects. |
| Keywords: | Labor and Human Capital, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, J61, Q12, Q10, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea12:127674&r=mig |
| By: | Maystadt, Jean-François; Mueller, Valerie |
| Abstract: | Environmental migration has been the subject of lively debate in recent years. The conundrum over why experts’ global predictions of 50 million environmental refugees were not met in 2010 best captures how messages from advocacy and research can conflict with one another (Bojanowski 2011). |
| Keywords: | Climate change, Migration, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:resbrf:18&r=mig |
| By: | Anna De Paoli (University of Milan Bicocca); Mariapia Mendola (University of Milan Bicocca and Centro Studi Luca d\'Agliano) |
| Abstract: | Global international migration may influence child labor through a labor market effect. We empirically investigate this issue by using an original cross-country survey dataset, which combines information on international emigration flows with detailed individual-level data on child labor at age 5-15 in a wide range of developing countries. By using variation in the emigration supply shocks across labor market units de.ned on the basis of both geography and skill, we estimate a set of child labor equations where the variable of interest is the interactive effect between parental skill and country-level emigration shocks. We measure the latter through different indicators including a direct measure of the relative skill composition of emigrants relative to the resident population in the country of origin. Overall, after controlling for a large set of individual-level characteristics, remittances, and country fixed effects, our findings are consistent with predictions and show that international out-migration may significantly reduce child labor in disadvantaged households through changes in the local labor market. |
| Keywords: | International Migration, Child Labor, Factor Mobility, Cross-country Survey Data |
| JEL: | F22 F1 J61 |
| Date: | 2012–07–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:339&r=mig |
| By: | Marc Klemp (University of Copenhagen); Chris Minns (London School of Economics); Patrick Wallis (London School of Economics); Jacob Weisdorf (University of Southern Denmark) |
| Abstract: | The study develops a real wage series for Germany c. 1500-1850 and analyzes its relationship with population size. From 1690 data density allows the estimation of a structural time series model of this relationship. The major results are the following: First, there was a strong negative relationship between population and the real wage until the middle of the seventeenth century. The dramatic rise of material welfare during the Thirty Years’ War was thus entirely due to the war-related population loss. Second, the relationship between the real wage and population size was weaker in the eighteenth than in the sixteenth century; the fall of the marginal product of labor was less pronounced, and the beginning of the eighteenth century saw a marked increase of labour demand. Third, labor productivity underwent a strong positive shock during the late 1810s and early 1820s, and continued to rise at a weaker pace during the following decades. This growth was only temporarily interrupted by negative shocks during the late 1840s and early 1850s. Results two and three suggest the onset of sustained economic growth well before the beginnings of industrialization, which set in during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0018&r=mig |
| By: | Matheson V.; Peeters Th.; Szymanski S. |
| Abstract: | Hosting a major international sporting event is a costly affair for the organizing country. Growth in tourism is often cited as one of the economic benefits, which should allow the host to earn back these costs. In this paper we use monthly country-by-country arrival data to assess the impact of organizing the FIFA 2010 World Cup on tourism in South Africa. We find that South Africa attracted around 200,000 extra arrivals from non-SADC countries during the event. Participating countries and South Americans contributed most to this increase. These figures are far below most projections made before the event. |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ant:wpaper:2012015&r=mig |
| By: | Jung, Philip; Kuhn, Moritz |
| Abstract: | An extensive empirical literature has documented that workers with high tenure suffer large and persistent earnings losses when they get displaced. We study the reasons behind these losses in a tractable search model with a life-cycle dimension, endogenous job mobility, worker- and match-heterogeneity. The model reconciles key characteristics of the U.S. labor market: large average transition rates, a large share of stable jobs, and the earnings losses from displacement. We decompose the earnings losses and find that only 50% result from skill losses. Endogenous reactions and selection account for the remainder. Our findings have important implications for the welfare costs of displacement and labor market policy. |
| Keywords: | Earnings Losses; Life-Cycle; Labor-Market Transitions; Turbulence |
| JEL: | E24 J63 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–07–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40287&r=mig |
| By: | Balli, Faruk; Basher, Syed Abul; Jean Louis, Rosmy |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates welfare gains and channels of risk sharing among 14 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries, including the oil-rich Gulf region and the resource-scarce economies such as Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. The results show that, for the 1992--2009 period, the overall welfare gains across MENA countries are higher than those documented for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations. In the Gulf region, the amount of factor income smoothing does not differ considerably when output shocks are longer-lasting rather than transitory, whereas the amount smoothed by savings increases remarkably when shocks are longer-lasting. By contrast, both factor income flows and international transfers respond more to permanent shocks than to transitory shocks in the non-oil MENA countries. The results also show that a significant portion of shocks is smoothed via remittance transfers in the economically less developed MENA countries, but not in the oil-rich Gulf and OECD countries. Finally, for the overall MENA region, a large part of the shock remains unsmoothed, suggesting that more market integration is needed to remedy the weak link of incomplete risk-sharing. |
| Keywords: | MENA region; remittance transfer; risk sharing; welfare gain |
| JEL: | I31 E21 F36 E60 |
| Date: | 2012–08–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40739&r=mig |
| By: | Arhan Ertan; Louis Putterman; Martin Fiszbein |
| Abstract: | Research on economic growth suggests that the era of colonization has had an impact on the levels of economic development of countries around the globe. However, why some countries were colonized early, some late, and others not at all, and what effect these differences have had on current income, has not been studied systematically. In the first part of this paper, we show that both the occurrence and the timing of colonization can be explained by (a) differences in levels of pre-1500 development, (b) proximity to the colonizing powers, (c) disease environment, and (d) latitude. In the second part, we analyze the developmental consequences of colonization while taking the endogeneity of colonization’s occurrence and timing into account. Whereas naïve estimates can suggest large impacts, we find that neither the fact nor the timing of colonization affect income today once colonization’s impact on the composition of the population and the quality of institutions is controlled for. |
| Keywords: | Colonization, Growth, Institutions, Pre-Modern Development, Migration. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bro:econwp:2012-5&r=mig |
| By: | HILDEBRAND Vincent; PI ALPERIN Maria Noel; VAN KERM Philippe |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the relative well-being of Portuguese immigrants in Luxembourg by looking at non-monetary, or ?direct indicators? of material deprivation. The paper not only documents deprivation di?erentials between immigrants and natives, but also models the association between material deprivation indicators, income and population characteristics in order to shed light on the sources of di?erentials. In particular, we measure how much income di?erentials explain di?erences in material deprivation. We ?nd that answer to this question depend a lot on what deprivation indicators are taken into consideration (and a little on how aggregate material deprivation indicators are constructed). Income di?erences explain material deprivation di?erences entirely when the latter is measured according the European Commission?s headline indicator on material deprivation. Inclusion of housing condition indicators mitigates this relationship and we then ?nd compelling evidence that material deprivation is not entirely accounted for by income di?erentials. |
| Keywords: | material deprivation; Portuguese immigrants; inverse generalized Loenz curve; reweighting; multidimensional poverty; PSELL |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2012-33&r=mig |
| By: | Martin Ljunge (University of Copenhagen and SITE) |
| Abstract: | I establish a positive relationship between family ties and civic virtues, as captured by disapproval of tax and benefit cheating, corruption, and a range of other dimensions of exploiting others for personal gain. I find that family ties are a complement to social capital, using within country evidence from 83 nations and data on second generation immigrants in 29 countries with ancestry in 85 nations. Strong families cultivate universalist values and produce more civic and altruistic individuals. The results provide a constructive role for families in promoting family values that support successful societies with a high state and fiscal capacity. |
| Keywords: | family ties, civic, family values, cultural transmission, altruism |
| JEL: | A13 H26 P16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2012–07–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuiedp:1207&r=mig |
| By: | Kurosaki, Takashi; Banerji, Asit; Mishra, S. N.; Mangal, A. K. |
| Abstract: | In 2010/11, we conducted a survey of cycle rickshaw pullers and rickshaw owners located throughout Delhi, India. We drew a sample of 132 rickshaw owners (called Thekedars) and a representative sample of 1,320 rickshaw pullers. The survey results show that most rickshaw pullers in Delhi are short-term, temporary migrants. Most rickshaw pullers are poorly educated. The majority migrated from villages in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Social networks that extend from places of origin to final destinations facilitate migration. More than 90% of rickshaw pullers operate rental rickshaws owned by Thekedars. Rickshaw pulling involves hard physical labor. On average, a rickshaw puller works 11 hours per day, over 27 days per month. We estimate the average daily earning to be Rs. 260. A typical migrant rickshaw puller may save more than Rs. 2,000 per month. He may send these funds to his village home. This is the migrant rickshaw pullers’ contribution to rural poverty reduction. Thekedars provide the fulcrum upon which the whole cycle rickshaw transportation system of Delhi turns., In addition to the rental of cycle rickshaws to migrant rickshaw pullers, Thekedars manage the administrative and legal aspects of their rickshaw rental business throughout the year. Their occupational history shows that many of them became a Thekedar from low beginnings, including rickshaw pulling and rickshaw repair jobs. On average, a Thekedar owns 56 rickshaws, approximately two-thirds of which are rented on a daily basis. Pullers pay a fixed rental fee per day at an average rate of Rs. 34. Net of business expenditures, monthly rickshaw rental income per Thekedar is estimated at approximately Rs. 5,600 for small and medium Thekedars and Rs. 41,000 for large Thekedars. The internal rate of return on investment over 5-6 years of the working life of a rickshaw is estimated to range between 18% and 62% per year. Currently, the rules and regulations on t he cycle rickshaw sector in Delhi are based on the principal of the one-rickshaw, one-owner, one-driver, one-license policy. However, this policy does not reflect the real-life situations we encountered in our survey. We recommend that Thekedars be endowed with legal entity status. This would result in the healthy development of urban transport in Delhi. |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:primdp:28&r=mig |
| By: | Bingqin Li; Hyun Bang Shin |
| Abstract: | Hosting of mega-events such as the Olympic Games tends to be accompanied by voluminous media coverage on the negative social impact of the Games, and the people in the affected areas are often considered to be one victim group sharing similar experiences. The research in this paper tries to unpack the heterogeneous groups in a particular sector of the housing market, and gain a better understanding of how the Olympic Games affects different resident groups. We take the example of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games and resort to empirical findings in an attempt to critically examine the experience of migrant tenants and Beijing citizens (landlords in particular) in 'villages-in-the-city' (known as cheongzhongcun) by delivering their own first-hand accounts of city-wide preparation for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympiad and the pervasive demolition threats to their neighbourhoods. The paper argues that the Beijing Summer Olympiad produced uneven, often exclusionary, Games experiences for a certain segment of urban population. |
| Keywords: | Beijing, Olympic Games, housing, marginality, patriotism, exclusion |
| JEL: | I31 D63 O18 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sticas:case163&r=mig |
| By: | Ethan G. Lewis |
| Abstract: | Research on the labor market impact of immigration typically relies on a single-good model of production with separable capital. This article discusses theory and evidence that suggest that this standard model is too simple to capture the labor market impact of immigration. A reasonable level of capital-skill complementarity, for which there is considerable support outside research on immigration, alone reduces the relative wage impact of immigration by 40 percent compared to simulations with skill-neutral capital. Other models in which the production structure responds to skill mix changes, including models with endogenous choice of technique, directed technical change, or human capital spillovers, can also imply the impact of immigration is considerably different than in the standard model. This article discusses new research which tries to credibly evaluate such models using immigration-induced variation in skill mix, an approach with further potential, and evidence that immigration impacts innovation and firm formation. |
| JEL: | J23 J24 J61 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18310&r=mig |
| By: | Annie Tubadji (Institut für Arbeidsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), and University of Regensburg); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to identify relationships between human capital and cultural capital, in the context of local labour market productivity. The key constituents of human capital, identified in the literature, are jointly examined in a close-to-reality-model. The main advantage of our model of productivity is that, in addition to accounting for the filigree composition of human capital, it also takes into consideration the cultural capital present in a locality. In this manner, we are able to examine the interaction between the quality of the incoming human capital and the cultural encounter context (generating the cultural "milieu" effect) of the modern diverse city. To this end, we operationalize one model with data on the 'melting pot' of EU15, at NUTS2 level. The sources of our data are the Eurostat Regional Database and the World Value Survey, which have served to construct both a cross-section for the year 2001. These datasets allows us: (1) to exa mine the different groups of migrating and local human capital, their interaction and joint impact on local productivity, and (2) to cross-check for the causality direction behind our model. Our findings suggest that benefits from immigrants differ, not only due to their human capital, but also due to their culturally biased different bargaining power on the labour market. |
| Keywords: | human capital; cultural capital; diversity; productivity; growth; Weber |
| JEL: | Z10 O31 O43 R11 |
| Date: | 2012–07–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120079&r=mig |
| By: | DIOP-CHRISTENSEN Anna |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of a Danish policy change that intended to 'make work pay' for married immigrant women receiving social assistance. According to new regulations adopted in 2006, married social benefit recipients in jobless households were required to work 300 hours within a two year period in order to remain eligible for social assistance. In the case of non-compliance, one spouse would lose the benefit entitlements (about 18,000? yearly). We have some evidence that the new rules did have an impact, but the central question of this paper is how economic incentives may influence the labour market integration of groups with low employability? In order to answer this question I pursue a qualitative research approach contrasting two theoretical explanations. One that relates to the effect on the immigrant women, and another that focuses on changes in the behaviour of social welfare workers. The analysis suggests that the strong economic incentives did speed up job search efforts and made these women less choosy, but due to employment barriers, it was often difficult to 'transform' the increased job wish into employment. Moreover, this policy intensified the cross-pressure of social welfare workers which fostered an atmosphere of emergency and a break with past coping-behaviour. All in all this study questions the impact of economic incentives towards groups with low employability, but highlights the potential role of social welfare workers. |
| Keywords: | Coping behaviour; Economic incentives; Immigrants; Marginalisation; Social assistance; Streetlevel bureaucracy |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2012-30&r=mig |
| By: | Arthur Grimes (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research and University of Auckland); les Oxley (University of Waikato); Nicholas Tarrant |
| Abstract: | Many aggregate measures of wellbeing and sustainability exist to guide policy-makers. However, the power of these aggregate measures to predict objective wellbeing outcomes has received little comparative testing. We compile and compare a range of aggregate wellbeing measures including: material measures (e.g. Gross Domestic Product per capita), surveyed measures (e.g. life satisfaction) and composite measures (e.g. Human Development Index) covering a range of countries. We test the predictive power of wellbeing measures for an objective indicator of how people value countries’ relative attractiveness. The objective indicator is net migration over a fifty year timespan, indicating people’s revealed preference (re)location choices. The paper examines relationships amongst cross-country wellbeing and sustainability measures; and examines how New Zealand compares with other countries according to these measures. Based on models of spatial (dis)equilibrium and migration, we present tests of the predictive power of alternative aggregate measures for international migration outcomes. We find that both material and life satisfaction outcomes are important determinants of the choice to migrate. |
| Keywords: | aggregate wellbeing; life satisfaction; gross domestic product; migration |
| JEL: | A13 E01 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:12_09&r=mig |
| By: | Picot, Garnett<br/> Hou, Feng |
| Abstract: | Le present document porte sur les differences entre les taux de participation aux etudes postsecondaires des eleves issus de familles d'immigrants et des eleves non immigrants en Suisse et au Canada. Pour les deux pays, un ensemble riche de donnees longitudinales, y compris les antecedents familiaux, les aspirations familiales concernant les etudes postsecondaires et les resultats des eleves mesures au moyen des scores du Programme international pour le suivi des acquis des eleves (PISA), servent a expliquer ces differences. Deux groupes sont analyses : tous les eleves de 15 ans; et tous les eleves de 15 ans du secondaire obtenant de faibles resultats. |
| Keywords: | Diversite ethnique et immigration, Enfants et jeunes, Education, formation et apprentissage, Education, Enfants et jeunes immigrants, Education, formation et competences, Resultats educationnels |
| Date: | 2012–07–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3f:2012344f&r=mig |
| By: | Anna Piil Damm (Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | Using survey information about characteristics of personal contacts linked with administrative register information on employment status one year later, I show that unemployed survey respondents with many employed acquaintances have a higher job finding rate. Settlement in a socially deprived neighborhood may, therefore, hamper individual labor market outcomes because of lack of employed contacts. I investigate this hypothesis by exploiting a unique natural experiment that occurred between 1986 and 1998 when refugee immigrants to Denmark were assigned to municipalities quasirandomly, which successfully addresses the methodological problem of endogenous neighborhood selection. Taking account of location sorting, living in a socially deprived neighborhood does not affect labor market outcomes of refugee men. Furthermore, their labor market outcomes are not affected by the overall employment rate of men living in the neighborhood, but positively affected by the employment rate of non-Western immigrant men and co-national men living in the neighborhood. This is strong evidence that immigrants find jobs in part through their employed immigrant and co-ethnic contacts in the neighborhood of residence and that a high quality of contacts increases the individual’s employment chances and annual earnings. |
| Keywords: | Residential job search networks, referral, contacts, neighborhood quality, labor market outcomes |
| JEL: | J60 J31 R30 |
| Date: | 2012–08–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2012-18&r=mig |
| By: | Fang, Tony (York University, Canada); Samnani, Al-Karim (York University, Canada); Novicevic, Milorad M. (University of Mississippi, Ole Miss); Bing, Mark N. (University of Mississippi, Ole Miss) |
| Abstract: | We examined the liability-of-foreignness (LOF) hypothesis for immigrant and native job seekers by analyzing a national dataset that tracks their use of job-search methods and their associated job outcomes in the Canadian labor market. To our knowledge this is the first empirical test of LOF at the individual-level while controlling for variables at multiple levels. We found support for LOF when job applicants used the rich media job-search methods of social networks and recruitment agencies, but not when they used the lean media of newspaper ads and the internet. Study limitations, implications, and future research are discussed. |
| Keywords: | liability-of-foreignness, immigration policy, levels of analysis, job success, labor market |
| JEL: | J15 J71 J78 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6742&r=mig |
| By: | Ganong, Peter (Harvard University); Shoag, Daniel (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | The past thirty years have seen a dramatic decrease in the rate of income convergence across U.S. states. This decline coincides with a similarly substantial decrease in population flows to wealthy states. We develop a model where labor mobility plays a central role in convergence and can quantitatively account for its disappearance. We then link this decline in directional migration to a large increase in housing prices and housing regulation in high-income areas. The model predicts that these housing market changes generate (1) a divergence in the skill-specific economic returns to living in rich places, (2) a decline in low-skilled migration to rich places and continued low-skilled migration to places with high income net of housing costs, (3) a decline in the rate of human capital convergence and (4) continued income convergence among places with unconstrained housing supply. Using Census data, we find support for the first three hypotheses. To test the fourth hypothesis, we develop a new state-level panel measure of housing supply regulations. Using this measure as an instrument for housing prices, we document the central role of housing prices and building restrictions in the end of income convergence. |
| JEL: | E24 J23 J24 R14 R23 R52 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp12-028&r=mig |
| By: | Richard Hornbeck; Suresh Naidu |
| Abstract: | In the American South, post-bellum economic stagnation has been partially attributed to white landowners' access to low-wage black labor; indeed, Southern economic convergence from 1940 to 1970 was associated with substantial black out-migration. This paper examines the impact of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 on agricultural development. Flooded counties experienced an immediate and persistent out-migration of black population. Over time, landowners in flooded counties dramatically mechanized and modernized agricultural production relative to landowners in nearby similar non-flooded counties. Landowners resisted black out-migration, however, benefiting from the status quo system of labor-intensive agricultural production. |
| JEL: | N32 N52 O10 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18296&r=mig |
| By: | Gil Epstein (Bar-Ilan University, Israel, CReAM, London and IZA, Bonn); Erez Siniver (The College of Management, Israel) |
| Abstract: | Studies in the US have shown that black immigrants have remained at the bottom of the wage ladder and that other groups of immigrants have overtaken them over time. The goal of this research is to determine whether a specific group of immigrants can displace a group at the bottom of the ladder. We use Israeli data to compare two ethnic groups: Israeli Arabs and Ethiopian immigrants. Israeli Arabs were considered to be the least successful ethnic group in the Israeli labor market until they were displaced by the Ethiopian immigrants. The results of our analysis show that an ethnic group at the bottom of the wage ladder can be replaced by another. |
| Keywords: | wage differences, immigrants |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1219&r=mig |
| By: | Gesa Matthes |
| Abstract: | Following the discussion on reurbanization (changing intra-regional migration patterns), our research project treats transport-related consequences of this spatial development in German city regions. The hypothesis is that reurbanization bears potential to spread environmentally friendly ways of organizing daily mobility – but that the chance of those positive effects might be given away, if policy does not accompany the process adequately. The aim of this project is to assess the current impact of reurbanization on passenger transport in city regions and to find further potential to reduce motorized passenger kilometres in order to deduce first planning approaches. This paper focuses on the question whether a household decides to move or to stay in its current dwelling and also analyses how the results vary in time and space. After having deduced factors on the decision to move, a logistic regression is run on the SOEP-data. The analysis shows that observed differences in time are mainly due to difference in behaviour regarding the factors ‘number of employed persons’ and the event ‘birth’ whereas spatial variation is mainly due to structural differences. |
| Keywords: | Relocation, move, migration, reurbanization, transport |
| JEL: | O18 O21 R14 R21 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp459&r=mig |
| By: | de Brauw, Alan; Mu, Ren |
| Keywords: | Migration, Children, rural areas, undernourishment, Undernutrition, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1191&r=mig |
| By: | John Kennan |
| Abstract: | There is a large body of evidence indicating that cross-country differences in income levels are associated with differences in productivity. If workers are much more productive in one country than in another, restrictions on immigration lead to large efficiency losses. The paper quantifies these losses, using a model in which efficiency differences are labor-augmenting, and free trade in product markets leads to factor price equalization, so that wages are equal across countries when measured in efficiency units of labor. The estimated gains from removing immigration restrictions are huge. Using a simple static model of migration costs, the estimated net gains from open borders are about the same as the gains from a growth miracle that more than doubles the income level in less-developed countries. |
| JEL: | E25 F11 F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18307&r=mig |
| By: | Beall, Jo; Kanbur, Ravi; Guha-Khasnobis, Basudeb |
| Keywords: | Community/Rural/Urban Development, Public Economics, |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:cudawp:128803&r=mig |
| By: | Picot, Garnett<br/> Hou, Feng |
| Abstract: | This paper examines differences in postsecondary-participation rates between students with and without immigrant backgrounds in Switzerland and Canada. For both countries, a rich set of longitudinal data, including family background, family aspirations regarding postsecondary education, and students' secondary-school performance as measured by Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores, are used to explain these differences. Two groups are analyzed: all 15-year-old students; and all low-performing 15-year-old secondary-school students. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic diversity and immigration, Children and youth, Education, training and learning, Education, Immigrant children and youth, Education, training and skills, Outcomes of education |
| Date: | 2012–07–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2012344e&r=mig |
| By: | Tengeh, RK; Ballard, HB; Slabbert, AS |
| Abstract: | Given the fact that numerous challenges prohibit African immigrants from availing financial capital for the purpose of starting a business in South Africa, this paper sets out to investigate whether those that succeeded experienced a significant increment in their financial capital three or more years after start-up. This paper was designed within the quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. A triangulation of three methods was utilised to collect and analyze the data. From a quantitative perspective, the survey questionnaire was used. To complement the quantitative approach, personal interviews and focus groups were utilised as the methods within the qualitative approach paradigm. The primary data collection instrument used was the survey questionnaire which was complemented by personal interviews and focus group debates. The results revealed that the majority (71,1%) African immigrants had an estimated start-up financial in the range of R 1 000 and R 5 000, which tended to vary across the different ethnic groups studied. After three of more years, the estimated financial capital of the majority (39,3%) of the respondents moved to a new range of R 50 001 to R 100 000. Noting a disparity in capital growth exhibited by the different ethnic groups, it was found that all the Ethiopians who started with a capital within the range of R1 000-R5 000 moved into a new capital range (R50 001- R100 000) three or more years after business start-up. Although the absolute migration in terms of capital demonstrated by the Ethiopians is not into the highest capital range, they were nonetheless the only country that experienced this phenomenal growth. In terms of occupying the highest capital range (R250 001- R500 000), 11,1% of Cameroonians moved into that range followed by 7,4% of Somalians. Using an increase in financial capital (generated by ploughing back profits) as a proxy for growth, we were able to prove that these African immigrants owned business grow and the rate of growth varied across the different ethnic groups studied. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant entrepreneurship; immigrant-owned businesses; financial capital; financial growth; African immigrants; business start-up resources and South Africa |
| JEL: | M1 A19 J61 A10 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40610&r=mig |
| By: | Dungan, Peter (University of Toronto); Fang, Tony (York University, Canada); Gunderson, Morley (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | We use a macro-econometric forecasting model to simulate the impact on the Canadian economy of a hypothetical increase in immigration. Our simulations generally yield positive impacts on such factors as real GDP and GDP per capita, aggregate demand, investment, productivity, and government expenditures, taxes and especially net government balances, with essentially no impact on unemployment. This is generally buttressed by conclusions reached in the existing literature. Our analysis suggests that concern should be with respect to immigrants themselves as they are having an increasingly difficult time assimilating into the Canadian labour market, and new immigrants are increasingly falling into poverty. |
| Keywords: | macroeconomic impact, immigration, FOCUS Model, Canada |
| JEL: | J15 E17 J18 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6743&r=mig |
| By: | Tiiu Paas (University of Tartu); Vivika Halapuu |
| Abstract: | The paper focuses on exploring people’s attitudes towards immigration in 26 European countries based on the European Social Survey fourth round database. Outcomes of the empirical analysis show that the attitudes of European people towards immigrants vary depending on 1) the personal characteristics of the respondents; 2) the country’s characteristics; and 3) the attitudes of people towards country institutions and socio-economic security. The studies results provide empirical evidence-based grounds for the development of policy measures to integrate ethnically diverse societies, taking into account the composition of the country's population and their attitudes to institutions and socio-economic security. |
| Keywords: | attitudes, immigration, tolerance, economic growth, policy implications |
| JEL: | O40 R11 C31 P51 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nor:wpaper:2012023&r=mig |
| By: | Doi, Yoko; McKenzie, David; Zia, Bilal |
| Abstract: | There has long been a concern among policymakers that too much of remittances are consumed and too little saved, limiting the development impact of migration. Financial literacy programs have become an increasingly popular way to try and address this issue, but to date there is no evidence that they are effective in inducing savings among remittance-receiving households, nor is it clear whether such programs are best targeted at the migrant, the remittance receiver, or both. The authors conducted a randomized experiment in Indonesia which allocated migrants and their families to a control group, a migrant-only training group, a family member-only training group, and a training group in which both the migrant and a family member were trained. Three rounds of follow-up surveys are then used to measure impacts on the financial knowledge, behaviors, and remittance and savings outcomes of the remaining household. They find that training both the migrant and the family member together has large and significant impacts on knowledge, behaviors, and savings. Training the family member alone has some positive, but smaller effects, whilst training only the migrant leads to no impacts on the remaining family members. The results show that financial education can have large effects when provided at a teachable moment, but that this impact varies greatly with who receives training. |
| Keywords: | Financial Literacy,Access to Finance,Education For All,Access&Equity in Basic Education,Primary Education |
| Date: | 2012–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6157&r=mig |
| By: | Adriana Lleras-Muney; Allison Shertzer |
| Abstract: | In the early twentieth century, education legislation was often passed based on arguments that new laws were needed to force immigrants to learn English and “Americanize.” We provide the first estimates of the effect of statutes requiring English as the language of instruction and compulsory schooling laws on the school enrollment, work, literacy and English fluency of immigrant children from 1910 to 1930. English schooling statutes did increase the literacy of foreign-born children, though only modestly. Compulsory schooling and continuation school laws raised immigrants’ enrollment and the effects were much larger for children born abroad than for native-born children. |
| JEL: | I28 K30 N32 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18302&r=mig |
| By: | Martin Halla; Alexander F. Wagner; Josef Zweimüller |
| Abstract: | This paper explores one potentially important channel through which immigration may drive support for extreme-right-wing parties: the presence of immigrants in the voters' neighborhoods. We study the case of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). Under the leadership of Jörg Haider, this party increased its share of votes from less than 5 percent in the early 1980s to 27 percent by the year 1999. Using past regional settlement patterns as a source of exogenous variation, we find a significantly positive effect on FPÖ votes of the residential proximity of immigrants and citizens, explaining roughly a quarter of the cross-community variance in those votes. It is the proximity of low- and medium-skilled immigrants that drives this result; high-skilled immigrants have no (or even a negative) effect on FPÖ votes. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, political economy, voting |
| JEL: | P16 J61 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:econwp:083&r=mig |
| By: | Ran Abramitzky; Leah Platt Boustan; Katherine Eriksson |
| Abstract: | Using novel data on 50,000 Norwegian men, we study the effect of wealth on the probability of internal or international migration during the Age of Mass Migration (1850-1913), a time when the US maintained an open border to European immigrants. We do so by exploiting variation in parental wealth and in expected inheritance by birth order, gender composition of siblings, and region. We find that wealth discouraged migration in this era, suggesting that the poor could be more likely to move if migration restrictions were lifted today. We discuss the implications of these historical findings to developing countries. |
| JEL: | J61 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18298&r=mig |
| By: | Masood Gheasi (VU University Amsterdam); Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam); Piet Rietveld (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | The rapid growth in the foreign-born population in many high and middle-income countries in the past decades has prompted much research on the socio-economic impacts of immigration. The migration issue has become one of the most debated subjects in many developed countries. Since the early 1990s, many applied studies have been conducted on the impact of international migration on international trade, foreign direct investment, and tourism. These studies have largely adopted the same specification, viz. the log-linear gravity model in combination with the knowledge capital model, where the (logarithm of the) stock of migrants from a specific source country may be included as an additional explanatory variable. Our study provides a concise review of the relationship between migrants and their international economic linkages. It then focuses on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), for both inward and outward FDI. The main aim of our study is to offer a synthesis by means of a meta-analysis of various studies undertaken worldwide, in order to test the robustness of the relationship between migration and foreign direct investment. Our primary results confirm that immigration has a positive impact on FDI investment in both directions (inward and outward), and that these impacts are higher when migrants are highly-educated and skilled. |
| Keywords: | immigration; diasporas; foreign direct investment; gravity model; meta-analysis |
| JEL: | F22 P45 |
| Date: | 2011–10–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20110147&r=mig |
| By: | Isilda Mara |
| Abstract: | This report describes the migration patterns of Romanian migrants in Italy before and after the accession of Romania into the European Union (EU). The findings and the main results presented throughout the report were collected by carrying out a survey in three main cities of Italy Milan, Turin and Rome which are recognized as the main destination regions of Romanians who have migrated to Italy since free visa liberalization in May 2004.The report focuses on four broad areas the profile and migration plans of migrants, regional differences and basic characteristics; labour market patterns during the migration experience, including income and remittances; social inclusion of migrants and access to social security and the health system; and, self-assessment of the migration experience and results of moving to Italy. The survey demonstrated that the mobility of migrants during the free visa regime was initially labour supply driven, whereas more recently, it has been labour demand that moved the migrant from his/her country of origin. However, the survey points out that almost half of Romanian migrants in Italy have indefinite migration plans. The remainder of the migrants express a preference for permanent migration, followed by long-term migration, while a preference for short-term migration is the least popular. The accession of Romania to the EU was accompanied by a flow of migrants with a higher preference for permanent and long-term migration, especially among those who arrived immediately after January 2007. Half of the migrants who had defined migration plans indicated that their current migration preferences, compared to the ones they had upon arrival, have shifted towards permanent migration. This is particularly true among women. As concerns remigration, or return to Romania, the survey reveals that migrants who are more likely to return to the country of origin or move to another country are those living in Rome while migrants who prefer to remain permanently are those living in Turin. As for labour market patterns and regional differences, four-fifths of migrants are employed, with the highest share of those working full-time found in Rome, followed by Turin and Milan. Unemployment among Romanian migrants seems to be the highest in Milan and the lowest in Turin. A significant proportion of migrant women have jobs in the categories ‘Sales and services elementary job’, ‘Personal care and related workers’ and ‘Housekeeping and restaurant services’. Men mostly work as ‘Extraction and building trades workers’, ‘Drivers and mobile plant operators’ and ‘Metal, machinery and related trades workers’. A non-negligible share of migrants work without a fixed contract which makes their employment position more vulnerable and open to exploitation. In addition, the survey shows that occupational switches occurred within all categories of occupational skill levels. In particular, there has been a trend towards jobs distinguished as medium and low skilled. Moreover, a comparison between education level and occupational skill level shows that highly skilled migrants, especially men, are employed in jobs below their level of educational achievement. A concern often expressed is that migrants who have access to health and social security services are more encouraged to enter or stay in a country. However, the survey rejected this hypothesis and suggests that neither receiving social security benefits nor the availability of accessing healthcare drives migrants’ decision to enter and remain in the destination country. Access to healthcare, however, appears to have some potential effect on migration plans. We find that the longer migrants plan to stay in the country, the higher the percentage of them who have access to a general practitioner/doctor and the higher the number of them whose migration decision is affected by access to such services. Accordingly, it emerges that the length of stay in the destination country matters and it confirms that there is a correlation between the duration of stay and the effect on migration plans attributed to access to social security and health services, even though such cases represent less than one-fifth of migrants. Self-assessment of the migration experience and outcomes from moving to Italy demonstrated that overall most of Romanian migrants are happy with their migration experience in Italy. The self-assessment indicated ‘making more money’, ‘finding a better job’ and ‘learning a new language’ as the main positive outcomes from the migration experience. In contrast, ‘insecurity about the future’, ‘discrimination’, ‘negative impact on family relationships’ and ‘doing work under the level of qualification’ are listed among the main negative outcomes. |
| Keywords: | data collection, migration, regions, employment, earnings, health, education, welfare, Romanian migrants |
| JEL: | C8 I J11 J21 J24 J31 J6 R Y Z |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:rpaper:rr:378&r=mig |
| By: | Stark, Oded; Jakubek, Marcin |
| Abstract: | A migration network is modeled as a mutually beneficial cooperative agreement between financially-constrained individuals who seek to finance and expedite their migration. The cooperation agreement creates a network: established migrants contract to support the subsequent migration of others in exchange for receiving support themselves. When the model is expanded to study cooperation between more than two migrants, it emerges that there is a finite optimal size of the migration network. Consequently, would-be migrants in the sending country will form a multitude of networks, rather than a single grand network. When the risk involved in participating in a cooperation agreement is incorporated, the propensity to enter an agreement is shown to depend positively on the cost of migration. -- |
| Keywords: | Migration network,Schedule of migration,Sequential migration,Affinity,Interpersonal bonds,Cost of migration |
| JEL: | D01 D71 D90 F22 F24 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuewef:42&r=mig |
| By: | Francesc Ortega; Giovanni Peri |
| Abstract: | This paper makes two contributions to the literature on the determinants of international migration flows. First, we compile a new dataset on annual bilateral migration flows covering 15 OECD destination countries and 120 sending countries for the period 1980-2006. We also collect data on time-varying immigration policies that regulate the entry of immigrants in our destination countries over this period. Second, we extend the empirical model of migration choice across multiple destinations developed by Grogger and Hanson (2011) by allowing for unobserved individual heterogeneity between migrants and non-migrants. Our estimates show that international migration flows are highly responsive to income per capita at destination. This elasticity is twice as high for within-EU migration, reflecting the higher degree of labor mobility within the European Union. We also find that tightening of laws regulating immigrant entry reduce rapidly and significantly their flow. |
| JEL: | E25 F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18322&r=mig |