nep-mig New Economics Papers
on Economics of Human Migration
Issue of 2013‒05‒05
nine papers chosen by
Yuji Tamura
Australian National University

  1. How does geographical mobility of inventors influence network formation? By Ernest Miguelez
  2. Deport or legalize? An Economic Analysis of US Immigration Reform By Aguiar, Angel; Terrie Walmsley
  3. Do happiness indexes truly reveal happiness? : measurin happiness using revealed preferences from migration flows By Helena Marques; Gabriel Pino; Juan de Dios Tena
  4. The effect of remittances prior to an election By Jean-Louis COMBES; Christian EBEKE; Mathilde MAUREL
  5. Labour Strategies of Women: The Value of Household Unpaid Work and Temporary Labour Migration Abroad By Raluca Prelipceanu
  6. South-South migration and the labor market: Evidence from South Africa By Giovanni Facchini; Anna Maria Mayda; Mariapia Mendola
  7. Migration Processes in Russia in 2011 By Lilia Karachurina
  8. ¿Dónde están los inmigrantes en Chile?: Un análisis de Patrones Espaciales de Residencia por Municipalidades By Carola Méndez Araya; Marcelo Lufin Varas
  9. Fluxos migratórios intrametropolitanos: o caso da região metropolitana de Belo Horizonte By Fausto Alves de Brito; Breno Aloísio T. Duarte de Pinho

  1. By: Ernest Miguelez (World Intellectual Property Organization, Economics and Statistics Division, Geneva, Switzerland)
    Abstract: The goal of this paper is to assess the influence of spatial mobility of knowledge workers on the formation of ties of scientific and industrial collaboration across European regions. Co-location has been traditionally invoked to ease formal collaboration between individuals and firms, since tie formation costs increase with physical distance between partners. In some instances, highly-skilled actors might become mobile and bridge regional networks across separate locations. This paper estimates a fixed effects logit model to ascertain precisely whether there exists a ‘previous co-location premium’ in the formation of networks across European regions.
    Keywords: inventors’ mobility, technological collaborations, co-location, European regions, panel data
    JEL: C8 J61 O31 O33 R0
    Date: 2013–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wip:wpaper:7&r=mig
  2. By: Aguiar, Angel; Terrie Walmsley
    Abstract: The prevalence of undocumented workers in the United States is a sensitive issue for U.S. policy makers with numerous policy responses contemplated by several different administrations. This paper examines the impact of possible reforms to U.S. immigration policy with respect to undocumented workers on the U.S. and Mexican economies. Using a global trade and migration model that considers undocumented workers, we find that undocumented workers have a positive impact on the U.S. economy and on the agricultural sector. Legalization of these undocumented workers emerges as the preferred option, although additional considerations may be required to assist the agricultural sector.
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gta:workpp:4257&r=mig
  3. By: Helena Marques; Gabriel Pino; Juan de Dios Tena
    Abstract: n this paper we attempt to establish a nexus between migration decisions and selfassessed happiness, where migration is taken as a mechanism for revealing preferences. The happiness literature has proposed both economic and non-economic determinants of happiness which are very similar to the factors that may be thought of as determinants of migration: absolute income, relative income, demographic and social characteristics, social development, relationship with others and characteristics of the place where we live. To these we add bilateral gravity variables, migration policies, and two survey-based happiness indexes. First, these two indexes are negatively correlated to net migration flows. Second, almost all the other explanatory variables are significant and as such survey-based happiness indexes fail to account for them. Third, we show how an international happiness ranking changes by taking into account those omitted factors. Finally, our migration-based ranking shows that, although many countries "truthfully" reveal happiness levels, in fact 19 countries are net migration senders even though they are self-proclaimed happy in surveys, whereas 23 countries are net migration recipients, even though in surveys they are self-proclaimed unhappy. We identify the sources of this mismatch and suggest where action could be taken to bring people’s self-assessment of happiness in line with revealed preferences
    Keywords: Happiness, Subjective wellbeing, Revealed preferences, Migration, Gravity models, FEVD
    JEL: F22 D03 C11 C23
    Date: 2013–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:wsrepe:ws130908&r=mig
  4. By: Jean-Louis COMBES; Christian EBEKE; Mathilde MAUREL
    Abstract: This paper focuses on the relationships between remittances, elections, and government consumption as a percentage of GDP. We combine data from the National Elections across Democracy and Autocracy (NELDA) dataset compiled and discussed in Hyde and Marinov (2012) and the World Development Indicators dataset. We focus on 70 young democracies in the developing world. The period under investigation is 1990-2010. The main objective of the paper is to assess whether remittances have an influence on the political manipulation, which may occur prior to an election, through in increase in the government consumption-to-GDP-ratio. It appears that remittances dampen the political business cycle (PBC). Furthermore, the PBC is reduced up to the point where it is fully cancelled out at a remittance threshold of 10.7 percent of GDP. Those findings are robust to different econometric strategies and robustness checks.
    Keywords: Political Business Cycles, Remittances
    JEL: F2 F22 O15
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1430&r=mig
  5. By: Raluca Prelipceanu (University of Evry and University of Paris Est Créteil)
    Abstract: Our paper sets forth two possible explanations for the fall in female labour force participation in Romania. The first explanation focuses on the increase in temporary labour migration rates, while the second relies on the existence of gender norms. We consider the existence of a social norm that sets the participation of women into household production. We test these assumptions on a 10 percent sample of the Romanian 2002 census. The results show the existence of important differences between women who do not work at all, those who do not move in the labour market and those who move for work, be it within the country or abroad. They also prove the importance of social norms for women who work in their residential locality and for those who temporarily migrate abroad for work.
    Keywords: Labour market, Household production, Social norms, Temporary international migration, Internal labour mobility
    JEL: D13 J16 J22 J61 R23
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eve:wpaper:13-08&r=mig
  6. By: Giovanni Facchini (University of Nottingham, University of Milan, Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano, CEPR and CES–Ifo); Anna Maria Mayda (Georgetown University, Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano, CEPR and IZA); Mariapia Mendola (University of Milan Bicocca and Centro Studi Luca d’Agliano)
    Abstract: Using census data for 1996, 2001 and 2007 we study the labor market effect of immigration to South Africa. The paper contributes to a small but growing literature on the impact of South-South migration by looking at one of the most attractive destinations for migrant workers in Sub–Saharan Africa. We exploit the variation – both at the district level and at the national one – in the share of foreign–born male workers across schooling and experience groups over time. At the district level, we estimate that increased immigration has a negative and significant effect on natives’ employment rates – and that this effect is more negative for skilled and white South African native workers – but not on total income. These results are robust to using an instrumental variable estimation strategy. At the national level, we find that increased immigration has a negative and significant effect on na-tives’ total income but not on employment rates. Our results are consistent with outflows of natives to other districts as a consequence of migration, as in Borjas (2006).
    Keywords: Immigration, Labor market effects, South Africa
    JEL: F22 J61
    Date: 2013–04–24
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:351&r=mig
  7. By: Lilia Karachurina (National Research University-Higher School of Economics, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy)
    Abstract: This paper deals with a scope of issues related to migration process taking place in the Russian Federation. The author focuses on the issues of labor migration and domestic migration. New legislative initiatives in the area of migration were reviewed.
    Keywords: Labor migration, international migration, Russian economy, Russian demography
    JEL: F22 J11 J61 J62
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gai:ppaper:132&r=mig
  8. By: Carola Méndez Araya (Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad Católica del Norte - Chile); Marcelo Lufin Varas (IDEAR - ORDHUM - Department of Economics, Universidad Católica del Norte - Chile)
    Abstract: The immigration issue is relevant in Chile, the main purpose is to describe the sociodemographic characteristics of the immigrant population resident in Chile and characterize their localization patterns by communes, considering the entire country. For this you use information from the National Socioeconomic Characterization 2006. The determination of the locations is done through an analysis of patterns of local spatial autocorrelation, which allows you to define common areas that form spatial clusters of immigrants. The results show that significant changes in location and composition of immigrants have occurred in Chile generating new challenges to society.
    Keywords: Inmigration international, spatial patterns, ethic enclave.
    Date: 2013–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cat:dtecon:dt201307&r=mig
  9. By: Fausto Alves de Brito (Cedeplar-UFMG); Breno Aloísio T. Duarte de Pinho (Cedeplar-UFMG)
    Abstract: Intra-metropolitan migrations are part of the urban expansion of Brazilian metropolises. The demographic metropolitan exchanges between core and periphery contributed so importantly to the trajectory of the metropolitan population peripheral. This article aims to analyze the evolution of intra-metropolitan migration flows in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte based on data from 1980, 1991, 2000 and 2010 population censuses. As from the metropolitan core and the urban expansion metropolitan vectors are outlined the main trends of these flows. The results show that migration within the metropolitan area was oriented mainly towards core-periphery, but with important differences between urban expansion vectors, as to the force of attraction flows. The migrations towards periphery-periphery and periphery-core gain intensity and diversify the direction of intra-metropolitan migration.
    Keywords: intra-metropolitan migration, metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, urban expansion metropolitan vectors.
    JEL: Y80
    Date: 2013–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td472&r=mig

This nep-mig issue is ©2013 by Yuji Tamura. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.