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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Isabelle Chort (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - Université Paris IX - Paris Dauphine, DIAL - Développement, institutions et analyses de long terme - Institut de recherche pour le développement [IRD]); Jean-Noël Senne (DIAL - Développement, institutions et analyses de long terme - Institut de recherche pour le développement [IRD], PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales [EHESS] - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - École normale supérieure [ENS] - Paris - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA), EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - INSEE - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique) |
| Abstract: | This paper fills the gap between individual selection models and collective approaches of migration. We build a theoretical model in order to account for household-based migration decisions and derive its implications on migrant selection. Assuming that the origin household maximizes a collective utility including earnings but also further remittances when choosing the one among its members who is to migrate, migrant selection in this case may differ from what is predicted by a pure individual decision model. Therefore, we specifically tackle the so far under-explored issue of intra-household selection into migration in order to identify what are the key determinants of household members' location choices. We derive our estimation procedure from an extension of the Roy-Dahl model and provide empirical evidence using a unique matched sample of 926 Senegalese migrants in three destination countries - France, Italy and Mauritania - and their origin household in Senegal. Our results show that expected remittances, along with earnings differentials, play a major role in shaping intra-household selection patterns, which stands in striking contrast with usual predictions from individual self-selection models. |
| Keywords: | Migration ; Remittances ; Intra-household allocation ; Selection |
| Date: | 2013–10–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-00877071&r=mig |
| By: | Pedro S. Martins, Matloob Piracha and José Varejão |
| Abstract: | Using matched employer-employee data, we analyse the impact of immigrants on natives’ employment in Portugal. Using different model specifications, we show that the natives and immigrants are ‘complements’ at most occupation levels, in the sense that both types are hired when the number of immigrants is increasing. Controlling for different skill-level groups as well as for temporary and permanent jobs, the estimates show that, contrary to the evidence from some existing literature, the natives at the lower end of the skills spectrum are not affected by the presence of immigrants as well. There is, however, some evidence that when the number of immigrants in the firm is decreasing, natives tend to replace immigrants. |
| Keywords: | matched employer-employee data, displacement, immigrants. |
| JEL: | J15 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgs:wpaper:44&r=mig |
| By: | Pia M. Orrenius; Madeline Zavodny |
| Abstract: | Immigrants supply skills that are in relatively short supply in the U.S. labor market and account for almost half of labor force growth since the mid-1990s. Migrant inflows have been concentrated at the low and high ends of the skill distribution. Large-scale unauthorized immigration has fueled growth of the low-skill labor force, which has had modest adverse fiscal and labor market effects on taxpayers and U.S.-born workers. High-skilled immigration has been beneficial in most every way, fueling innovation and spurring entrepreneurship in the high tech sector. Highly skilled immigrants have had a positive fiscal impact, contributing more in tax payments than they use in public services. Immigration reform appears to be on the horizon, and policies such as a legalization initiative, a guest-worker program and more permanent visas for high-skilled workers would likely be an improvement over the status quo. |
| Keywords: | Business cycles ; Minorities - Employment ; Public policy |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddwp:1306&r=mig |
| By: | Gharad Bryan (London School of Economics); Shyamal Chowdhury (University of Sydney); Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak (School of Management, Yale University) |
| Abstract: | Hunger during pre-harvest lean seasons is widespread in the agrarian areas of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. We randomly assign an $8.50 incentive to households in rural Bangladesh to out-migrate during the lean season. The incentive induces 22% of households to send a seasonal migrant, their consumption at the origin increases significantly, and treated households are 8-10 percentage points more likely to re-migrate 1 and 3 years after the incentive is removed. These facts can be explained qualitatively by a model in which migration is risky, mitigating risk requires individual-specific learning, and some migrants are sufficiently close to subsistence such that failed migration is very costly. We document evidence consistent with this model using heterogeneity analysis and additional experimental variation, but calibrations with forward-looking households that can save up to migrate suggest that it is difficult for the model to quantitatively match the data. We conclude with extensions to the model that could provide a better quantitative accounting of the behavior. |
| Keywords: | Seasonal Migration, Bangladesh, Risk |
| JEL: | O1 O15 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:1032&r=mig |
| By: | Georgette A. Fernandez Laris (UP1 UFR02 - Université Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne - UFR d'Économie - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne - PRES HESAM) |
| Abstract: | Using a geographical approach, I exploit the regional (city) variation in the proportion of Mexican households deciding to send a migrant to the U.S across two quinquennial periods to estimate the causal effect of emigration on the local price indices of eight distinct groups of goods and services. To overcome the endogeneity of the emigration decision, I employ an instrumental variables approach that relies on the deep historical roots and high persistence characteristic of Mexican migration. My results show that emigration had a significant negative effect across all price index product classifications. Moreover, they suggested that emigration is more likely to affect non-traded good items and services than tradable products since the magnitude of the negative effect rose when restricting the analysis to the non-tradable good components within each price index classification. |
| Keywords: | émigration mexicaine, réseaux de migrants, prix, indice des prix à la consommation, pouvoir d'achat, biens marchand, biens non-marchands |
| Date: | 2013–06–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:dumas-00877861&r=mig |