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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Michael Clemens and Timothy N. Ogden |
| Abstract: | It is time to fundamentally reframe the research agenda on remittances, payments, and development. We describe many of the research questions that now dominate the literature and why they lead us to uninformative answers. We propose reasons why these questions dominate, the most important of which is that researchers tend to view remittances as states do (as windfall income) rather than as families do (as returns on investment). Migration is, among other things, a strategy for financial management in poor households: location is an asset, migration an investment. This shift of perspective leads to much more fruitful research questions that have been relatively neglected. We suggest 12 such questions. |
| Keywords: | migration, finance, global development |
| JEL: | F24 F30 E42 O16 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:354&r=mig |
| By: | Ernest Miguélez (GREThA - UMR CNRS 5113, Universite Montesquieu) |
| Abstract: | This paper documents the influence of diaspora networks of highly-skilled individuals – i.e., inventors – on international technological collaborations. Using gravity models, it studies the determinants of the internationalization of inventive activity between a group of industrialized countries and a sample of developing and emerging economies. The paper examines the influence exerted by skilled diasporas in fostering cross-country co-inventorship as well as R&D offshoring. The study finds a strong and robust relationship between inventor diasporas and different forms of international co-patenting. However, the effect decreases with the level of formality of the interactions. Interestingly, some of the most successful diasporas recently documented – namely, Chinese and Indian ones – do not govern the results. |
| Keywords: | inventors, diaspora networks, international collaborations, R&D offshoring, PCT patents |
| JEL: | C8 J61 O31 O33 R0 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1425&r=mig |
| By: | Labanca, Claudio |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2014–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsdec:qt8m49f3qb&r=mig |
| By: | Michael Clemens |
| Abstract: | Skilled workers have a rising tendency to emigrate from developing countries, raising fears that their departure harms the poor. To mitigate such harm, researchers have proposed a variety of policies designed to tax or restrict high-skill migration. Those policies have been justified as Pigovian regulations to raise efficiency by internalizing externalities, and as non-Pigovian regulations grounded in equity or ethics. This paper challenges both sets of justifications, arguing that Pigovian regulations on skilled emigration are inefficient and non-Pigovian regulations are inequitable and unethical. It concludes by discussing a different class of policy intervention that, in contrast, has the potential to raise welfare. |
| Keywords: | brain drain, migration, immigration, emigration, mobility, labor, skill, education, human capital |
| JEL: | F22 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:363&r=mig |
| By: | Martin Kahanec; Lucia Mýtna Kureková |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the mobility patterns of Slovaks into the rest of the European Union (EU) following Slovakia’s EU accession in 2004 and through the Great Recession. Combining information from various data sources including the Slovak Labor Force Survey and conducting our own statistical analysis of selectivity into migration, we study whether and how migration responded to asymmetric economic shocks at home and abroad. We identify a number of shifts in the directionality and composition of migration flows in terms of the destinations, gender, age, educational attainment and occupation, reflecting changing labor market conditions in receiving countries and Slovakia. We show that besides the standard demographic factors, migration propensity was higher among the unemployed and from the more depressed regions of Slovakia. We conclude that labor migration has served as an important adjustment mechanism in the country and more generally in the EU labor market. |
| Keywords: | Adjustment, EU enlargement, labor market, migration, Slovakia |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2014–06–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cel:dpaper:23&r=mig |
| By: | Qiu, Theresa; Hou, Feng; Picot, Garnett |
| Abstract: | In Canada, the selection of economic immigrants throughout the 1990s and 2000s was based largely on the human capital model of immigration. This model posits that selecting immigrants with high levels of human capital is particularly advantageous in the long run. It is argued that higher educational levels allow immigrants to both bring the skills needed in a "knowledge-based economy" and, perhaps more importantly, better adjust to both cyclical and structural changes in the labour market than immigrants with lower educational levels. This paper examines the trends in the earnings advantage that more highly educated immigrants hold over less educated immigrants by immigration class. The focus is on three questions. First, did the well-documented decline in entry earnings observed over the last quarter-century vary by immigrant educational level and by admission class? Second, have there been significant shifts across recent cohorts in the economic advantage that more highly educated immigrants hold over their less educated counterparts, both at entry and in the longer run? Third, and most importantly, does the relative earnings advantage of more highly educated immigrants change with time spent in Canada, that is, in the longer run? |
| Keywords: | Education, training and learning, Education, training and skills, Educational attainment, Employment and unemployment, Ethnic diversity and immigration, Ethnic groups and generations in Canada, Labour, Labour market and income, Outcomes of education, Wages, salaries and other earnings |
| Date: | 2014–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2014361e&r=mig |
| By: | Michael Clemens and David McKenzie |
| Abstract: | While measured remittances by migrant workers have soared in recent years, macroeconomic studies have difficulty detecting their effect on economic growth. We review existing explanations for this puzzle and propose three new ones. First, we offer evidence that a large majority of the recent rise in measured remittances may be illusory—arising from changes in measurement, not changes in real financial flows. Second, we show that even if these increases were correctly measured, cross-country regressions would have too little power to detect their effects on growth. Third, we point out that the greatest driver of rising remittances is rising migration, which has an opportunity cost to economic product at the origin. Net of that cost, there is little reason to expect large growth effects of remittances in the origin economy. Migration and remittances clearly have first-order effects on poverty at the origin, on the welfare of migrants and their families, and on global GDP; but detecting their effects on growth of the origin economy is likely to remain elusive. |
| Keywords: | remittances, growth, migration, measurement |
| JEL: | F24 F22 E01 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:366&r=mig |
| By: | Bouoiyour, Jamal; Miftah, Amal; Selmi, Refk |
| Abstract: | Brain drain has long been an important concern particularly for a developing country like Morocco where high-skilled emigration rates are highest. The aim of this paper is to highlight the causes of migration of Moroccan students to France, to offer then some implications. To this end, we apply an ARDL Bounds testing approach and VEC Granger causality test to annual data spanning the period between 1971 and 2011. We show that the quality of higher education measured by French research & development (proxy of French institutions) seem the main determinant of student mobility. The per-capita income differential between France and Morocco also plays an important role on explaining student migration. The uncertainty about future Moroccan inflation (proxy of Moroccan institutions) encourages the departure of students abroad, while the degree of openness via trade and foreign direct investments discourage. Academic exchange agreements and the creation of research centers accredited by the two countries have been recommended to enhance the French economic development from high-skilled migrants without depriving Morocco. |
| Keywords: | Brain drain; Brain gain; Moroccan students; France. |
| JEL: | F0 O1 |
| Date: | 2014–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:56630&r=mig |
| By: | Cristina Cattaneo (FEEM); Carlo V. Fiorio (University of Milano and Econpubblica); Giovanni Peri (University of California, Davis and NBER) |
| Abstract: | Following a representative longitudinal sample of native European residents, over the period 1995-2001, we identify the effect of the inflows of immigrants on their career, employment and wages. We use the 1991 distribution of immigrants by nationality across European labor markets to construct an imputed inflow of the foreign-born population that is exogenous to local demand shocks. We also control for .fixed effects that absorb individual, country-year, occupation group-year and occupation group-country heterogeneity and shocks. We find that native European workers are more likely to move to occupations associated with higher skills and status when a larger number of immigrants enter their labor market. As a consequence of this upward mobility their wage income also increases with a 1-2 years lag. We find no evidence of an increase in their probability of becoming unemployed. |
| Keywords: | Immigrants, Job Upgrading, Mobility, Self-employment, Europe |
| JEL: | J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2014.54&r=mig |
| By: | Yang, Jin; Wang, Hui; Jin, Songqing; Chen, Kevin Z.; Riedinger, Jeffrey; Chao, Peng |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of local off-farm employment and migration on rural households’ technical efficiency of crop production using a five-year panel dataset from more than 2,000 households in five Chinese provinces. While there is not much debate about the positive contribution of migration and local off-farm employment to China’s economy, there is an increasing concern about the potential negative effects of moving labor away from agriculture on China’s future food security. This is a critical issue as maintaining self-sufficiency in grain production will be critical for China to feed its huge population in the future. |
| Keywords: | Migration, labor, cereals, food security, Efficiency, local off-farm, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1338&r=mig |
| By: | Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes (San Diego State University); Fernando Antonio Lozano (Pomona College) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effectiveness of Arizona’s omnibus immigration law SB1070, which made it a misdemeanor crime for an alien to not carry proper documentation and asked police to determine the immigration status of any person suspected of being an illegal alien during a lawful stop. We find that SB1070’s enactment coincided with the stalling to slight recovery of the share of non-citizen Hispanics in Arizona three years after the enactment of an employment verification mandate to all employers. Yet, its effectiveness in reducing the share of likely unauthorized immigrants has been minimal and questions the merit of the law. |
| Keywords: | Undocumented, Immigration, Arizona |
| JEL: | J61 J1 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1423&r=mig |
| By: | Michael Clemens |
| Abstract: | The most basic economic theory suggests that rising incomes in developing countries will deter emigration from those countries, an idea that captivates policymakers in international aid and trade diplomacy. A lengthy research literature and recent data suggest something quite different: that over the course of a “mobility transition”, emigration generally rises with economic development until countries reach upper-middle income—at least until countries reach upper-middle income level, like Algeria or El Salvador. Only thereafter, as countries become even richer, do emigration rates typically fall. This note quantifies the shape of the mobility transition in every decade since 1960. It then briefly surveys 45 years of research, which has yielded six classes of theory to explain the mobility transition and numerous tests of its existence and characteristics in both macro- and micro-level data. This evidence suggests that donors to low income countries have little hope of using assistance to deter migration, unless the determinants of migration undergo rapid change in the future. Policy research might be better directed toward understanding how to shape rising migration flows for mutual gain. The note concludes by suggesting five questions that require further study. |
| Keywords: | emigration, mobility, economic growth |
| JEL: | F22 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:359&r=mig |
| By: | Hubert Jayet (EQUIPPE - ECONOMIE QUANTITATIVE, INTEGRATION, POLITIQUES PUBLIQUES ET ECONOMETRIE - Université Lille I - Sciences et technologies - Université Lille II - Droit et santé - Université Lille III - Sciences humaines et sociales - PRES Université Lille Nord de France); Glenn Rayp (Department of Economics and SHERPPA - Ghent University); Ilse Ruyssen (UCL - universite catholique louvain - universite catholique louvain - Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) - Belgique); Nadiya Ukrayinchuk (EQUIPPE - ECONOMIE QUANTITATIVE, INTEGRATION, POLITIQUES PUBLIQUES ET ECONOMETRIE - Université Lille I - Sciences et technologies - Université Lille II - Droit et santé - Université Lille III - Sciences humaines et sociales - PRES Université Lille Nord de France) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses migratory streams to Belgian municipalities between 1994-2007. The Belgian population register constitutes a rich and unique database of yearly migrant inflows and stocks broken down by nationality, which allows us to empirically explain the location choice of immigrants at municipality level. Speci cally, we aim at separating the network ef- fect, captured by the number of previous arrivals, from other location-speci c characteristics such as local labor or housing market conditions and the presence of public amenities. We expect labor and housing market variables to operate at diff erent levels and develop a fixed eff ects nested model of location choice in which an immigrant fi rst chooses a broad area, roughly corresponding to a labor market, and subsequently chooses a municipality within this area. We fi nd that the spatial repartition of immigrants in Belgium is determined by both network eff ects and local characteristics. The determinants of local attractiveness vary by nationality, as expected, but for all nationalities, they seem to dominate the impact of network eff ects. |
| Keywords: | Migration ; Location choice ; Network e ffects, Nested logit ; Immigrants ; Belgium |
| Date: | 2014–06–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01006864&r=mig |
| By: | Xavier Chojnicki; Lionel Ragot |
| Abstract: | Immigration is often seen as an instrument of adaptation for aging countries. In this paper, we evaluate, using a dynamic general equilibrium model, the contribution of migration policy in reducing the tax burden associated with the aging population in France. Four variants, compared to a baseline scenario based on oficial projections, are simulated with the aim to quantify the immigration effects on the French social protection finances. The first variant assesses the economic effects of immigration in France as projected into official forecasts. The three other variants are built on the same more ambitious annual flows of immigrants (corresponding to net migration that have characterized the second great wave of immigration in France in the twentieth century). These three variants only distinguish in terms of the skill structure of new migrants. We show that the age and skill structure of immigrants are the key feature that mainly determine the effects on social protection finances. Overall, these effcts are all the more positive in the short-medium term that the migration policy is selective (in favor of more skilled workers). In the long term, beneficial effects of a selective policy may disappear. But the financial gains from more consequent migration flows are relatively moderated in comparison of demographic changes implied. |
| Keywords: | Migration, AGEM, Overlapping generations, Aging, Public finance, Social protection. |
| JEL: | C68 D58 E60 H55 H68 J61 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2014-33&r=mig |
| By: | Michael Clemens, Çaglar Özden, and Hillel Rapoport |
| Abstract: | Research on migration and development has recently changed, in two ways. First, it has grown sharply in volume, emerging as a proper subfield. Second, while it once embraced principally rural-urban migration and international remittances, migration and development research has broadened to consider a range of international development processes. These include human capital investment, global diaspora networks, circular or temporary migration, and the transfer of technology and cultural norms. To introduce a special issue of World Development on migration and development, we present a selection of frontier migrant-and-development research that instantiates these trends. |
| Keywords: | migration, development, poverty, mobility, brain drain, skill, education, remittances, labor, overseas |
| JEL: | F22 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:365&r=mig |
| By: | Qiu, Theresa; Hou, Feng; Picot, Garnett |
| Abstract: | Au Canada, au cours des annees 1990 et des annees 2000, la selection des immigrants economiques s?est appuyee principalement sur le modele d?immigration axe sur le capital humain. Ce modele a pour premisse que selectionner des immigrants dont le niveau de capital humain est eleve est particulierement favorable a long terme. Les partisans de ce modele soutiennent qu?un haut niveau de scolarite permet aux immigrants d?arriver en possedant les competences necessaires dans une et, fait peut etre plus important, de mieux s?adapter aux changements cycliques et structurels du marche du travail que les immigrants ayant fait moins d?etudes. Le present document porte sur les tendances de l?avantage salarial que les immigrants ayant un niveau eleve de scolarite possedent par rapport a ceux moins instruits selon la categorie d?immigration. L?etude vise a repondre a trois questions. Premierement, la diminution bien documentee des revenus initiaux des immigrants observee au cours du dernier quart de siecle a t elle varie selon le niveau de scolarite et selon la categorie d?admission des immigrants? Deuxiemement, y a t il eu chez les cohortes recentes une evolution significative de l?avantage economique que detiennent les immigrants possedant un plus haut niveau de scolarite par rapport a leurs homologues moins instruits, a l?arrivee ainsi qu?a plus long terme? Troisiemement, et surtout, l?avantage salarial relatif des immigrants tres instruits evolue t il en fonction de la duree du sejour au Canada, c?est a dire a long terme? |
| Keywords: | Education, training and learning, Education, training and skills, Educational attainment, Employment and unemployment, Ethnic diversity and immigration, Ethnic groups and generations in Canada, Labour, Labour market and income, Outcomes of education, Wages, salaries and other earnings |
| Date: | 2014–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3f:2014361f&r=mig |