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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Gil S. Epstein (Bar-Ilan University); Odelia Heizler (Cohen) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we explore employers’ decisions regarding the employment of legal and illegal immigrants in the presence of endogenous adjustment cost, minimum wages and an enforcement budget. We show that increasing the employment of legal foreign workers will increase the number of illegal immigrants which will replace the employment of the local population and thus creating illegal migration. |
| Keywords: | illegal immigration, foreign worker, minimum wages |
| JEL: | J3 K42 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:biu:wpaper:2013-02&r=mig |
| By: | Sanjaya DeSilva |
| Abstract: | Utilizing a nationally representative sample of households from Sri Lanka, this study examines gender differences in the long-term impact of temporary labor migration. We use a propensity score matching (PSM) framework to compare households with return migrants, households with current migrants, and equivalent nonmigrant households in terms of a variety of outcomes. Our results show that households that send women abroad are relatively poor and utilize migration to catch up with the average household, whereas sending a man abroad allows an already advantaged household to further strengthen their economic position. We also find that remittances from females emphasize investment in home improvements and acquisition of farm land and nonfarm assets, whereas remittances of men are channeled more toward housing assets and business ventures. |
| Keywords: | Migration; Remittances; Gender; Sri Lanka |
| JEL: | F22 F24 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_756&r=mig |
| By: | A. Gentili |
| Abstract: | International migration is an expensive form of investment, that only households relatively better off can afford. However poorer households have the higher incentive to migrate. Migration decision is conditional on the entry cost, expected returns and risks of migration. This paper, using data from Mexican rural and urban areas, examines the relation between household and community networks and costs and risks of migration focusing on the optimal investment in migration. To investigate an household optimal number of migrants this paper introduces a Three Step procedure to solve simultaneously for the endogeneity of network size and possible selection of migrants. The analysis confirms the inverted U-shaped relation between wealth and migration, stressing the importance of networks particularly in facilitating the migration of social strata belonging to the left tail of the income distribution. Moreover, in presence of sunk costs and/or high initial investment, household and community networks accomplish different functions. |
| JEL: | O15 J11 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp867&r=mig |
| By: | John Gibson (University of Waikato); David McKenzie (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a unique survey to examine the nature and extent of knowledge flows that result from the international mobility of researchers whose initial education was in small island countries. Current migrants produce substantially more research than similar-skilled return migrants and non-migrants. Return migrants have no greater research impact than individuals who never migrate but are the main source of research knowledge transfer between international and local researchers. Our results contrast with previous claims in the literature that too few migrant researchers ever return home to have much impact, and that there is no productivity gain to researchers from migration. |
| Keywords: | Diasporas, Knowledge networks, Scientific mobility |
| JEL: | J6 O3 R1 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1305&r=mig |
| By: | Moschion, Julie (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research); Tabasso, Domenico (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the respective influence of intergenerational transmission and the environment in shaping individual trust. Focusing on second generation immigrants in Australia and the United States, we exploit the variation in the home and in the host country to separate the effect of the cultural background from that of the social and economic conditions on individual trust. Our results indicate that trust in the home country contributes to the trust of second generation immigrants in both host countries, but particularly so in the United States. Social and economic conditions in the host country, such as crime rate, economic inequality, race inequality and segregation by country of origin, also affect trust. Evidence for first generation immigrants confirms that the transmission of trust across generations is primarily important in the United States, and, that differences in trust levels between the two host countries increase with acculturation. |
| Keywords: | trust, migration, culture |
| JEL: | J15 O15 Z10 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7203&r=mig |
| By: | Gloria O. Pasadilla (Philippine Institute for Development Studies) |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the labour migration trends in ASEAN and in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), in particular, and analyses the ASEAN regional labour-related initiatives that seek to improve the protection of migrant workers |
| Keywords: | Social security, social protection, Greater Mekong Subregion, portability,ASEAN, labour migration |
| JEL: | F15 F22 H55 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esc:wpaper:12213&r=mig |
| By: | A. Gentili; L. Ferretti |
| Abstract: | This paper models the dynamic of migration with a particular focus on the cumulative process that causes a variation in the distribution of income in sending communities and therefore a variation in the distribution of skills across different cohorts. The model provides a theoretical framework to Cumulative Causation theory of migration and specifically a theoretical rationale behind the use of migration prevalence ratio to study migration flows. Moreover the model shows how brain drain (in sending communities) and negative cohort effect in terms of education (in receiving communities) are the result of a positive selection of migrants in terms of skills if there is a intergenerational transmission of education. |
| JEL: | J15 J24 E24 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp868&r=mig |
| By: | Stark, Oded; Dorn, Agnieszka |
| Abstract: | In the model of Stark et al. (1997, 1998), the possibility of employment in a developed country raises the level of human capital acquired by workers in the developing country. We show that this result holds even when workers have the option to save. |
| Keywords: | Human capital formation, Savings, Intertemporal choice, Prospect of migrating, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Consumer/Household Economics, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Labor and Human Capital, D91, F22, J22, J24, |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ubzefd:143842&r=mig |
| By: | Hernán Enríquez Sierra; Jacobo Campo Robledo |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the migration dynamics in the Americas from 1960 to 2005 using an equilibrium approach. Using recent spatial econometrics techniques, the migration flow is evaluated, controlling for the labor mobility effect and regional wages. Additionally, the estimated model looks for variations in migration by taking into account the distinctive population features in each country, namely the working age population, unemployment rate and relative wages. The estimated model shows that the spatial equilibrium related to net migration is negatively affected by wages and positively influenced by labor supply in the region. |
| Date: | 2013–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000462:010478&r=mig |
| By: | Alfonso Miranda; Yu Zhu |
| Abstract: | Using the first wave of the UK Household Longitudinal Survey, we investigate the extent to which deficiency at English as measured by English as Additional Language (EAL), contribute to the immigrant-native wage gap for female employees in the UK, after controlling for age, region of residence, educational attainment and ethnicity. We allow for endogeneity of EAL and correct for bias arising from self-selection into employment using a 3-step estimation procedure. We find very strong evidence of negative selection of EAL into employment. Moreover, we also present evidence of self-selection bias on the wage equation, which if uncorrected, would result in significant underestimation of the causal effect of EAL on the immigrant-native wage gap for women. |
| Keywords: | English as Additional Language (EAL); immigrant-native wage gap; selectivity bias |
| JEL: | J15 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:1301&r=mig |
| By: | Pierre-Philippe Combes (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II - Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille III - Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - CNRS : UMR6579); Sylvie Démurger (GATE Lyon Saint-Etienne - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - CNRS : UMR5824 - Université Lumière - Lyon II - École Normale Supérieure - Lyon); Shi Li (School of Economics and Business Administration - School of Economics and Business Administration - Beijing Normal University) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the role that cities play on individual productivity in China. First, we show that location explains a large share of nominal wage disparities. Second, even after controlling for individual and -firms characteristics and instrumenting city characteristics, the estimated elasticity of wage with respect to employment density is about three times larger than inWestern countries. Land area and industrial specialisation also play a significant role whereas the access to external markets does not. Therefore, large agglomeration economies prevail in China and they are more localised than in Western countries. Third, we -find evidence of a large positive impact of the local share of migrants on local workers'wages. Overall, these results strongly support the productivity gains that can be expected from further migration and urbanisation in China. |
| Keywords: | urban development; agglomeration economies; wage disparities; migration; China |
| Date: | 2013–02–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00786107&r=mig |
| By: | Paula Stephan; Chiara Franzoni; Giuseppe Scellato |
| Abstract: | We analyze the decisions of foreign-born PhD and postdoctoral trainees to come to the United States vs. go to another country for training. Data are drawn from the GlobSci survey of scientists in sixteen countries working in four fields. We find that individuals come to the U.S. to train because of the prestige of its programs and/or career prospects. They are discouraged from training in the United States because of the perceived lifestyle. The availability of exchange programs elsewhere discourages coming for PhD study; the relative unattractiveness of fringe benefits discourages coming for postdoctoral study. Countries that have been nibbling at the U.S.-PhD and postdoc share are Australia, Germany, and Switzerland; France and Great Britain have gained appeal in attracting postdocs, but not in attracting PhD students. Canada has made gains in neither. |
| JEL: | F22 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18809&r=mig |