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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Maryam Naghsh Nejad (Institute for the study of labor (IZA), Schaumburg-Lippe-Strasse); Andrew T. Young (West Virginia University, College of Business and Economics) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we model the migration decisions of high-skilled women as a function of the benefits associated with moving from an origin with relatively low women´s rights to a destination with a relatively high women´s rights. However, the costs faced by women are decreasing in the level of women´s rights provided. The model predicts a non-linear relationship between the relative levels of women's rights in destination versus origin countries (the women's rights gap) and the gender gap in high-skilled migration flows (the female brain drain ratio). In particular, starting from large values of the women´s rights gap (where women´s rights are very low in the origin) decreases in the gap may be associated with increases in the female brain drain ratio. However, starting from lower levels of the gap the relationship is positive: a greater gain in women´s rights moving from origin to destination is, all else equal, associated with a greater likelihood of migration. Using a cross section of over 3,000 bilateral migration flows across OECD and non-OECD countries and the women's rights indices from the CIRI Human Rights Dataset, we report evidence consistent with the theory. A statistically significant and nonlinear relationship exists between women's rights gaps and female brain drain ratios. The evidence is particularly strong for the case of women's political rights. |
| Keywords: | female brain drain, high skilled female migration, bilateral migration flows, women's rights, institutional quality, gravity models |
| JEL: | F22 J11 J61 J16 O17 O43 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wvu:wpaper:14-10&r=mig |
| By: | Kuhn, Peter J. (University of California, Santa Barbara); Shen, Kailing (Xiamen University) |
| Abstract: | We study urban Chinese employers' preferences between workers with and without a local residence permit (hukou) using callback information from an Internet job board serving private sector employers. We find that employers prefer migrant workers to locals who are identically matched to the job's requirements; these preferences are especially strong at low skill levels. We argue that migrants' higher work hours and effort help to account for employers' preferences, and present evidence that efficiency wage and intertemporal labor substitution effects might explain these hours/effort gaps. |
| Keywords: | temporary migration, China, hukou, undocumented migrants |
| JEL: | O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8289&r=mig |
| By: | Zhiling Wang; Thomas de Graaff; and Peter Nijkamp (VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the impact of cultural composition on regional attractiveness from the perspective of migrant sorting behaviour. We use an attitudinal survey to quantify cultural distances between natives and immigrants in the area concerned, and estimate the migrants’ varying preferences for both cultural diversity and cultural distance. To account for regional unobserved heterogeneity, our econometric analysis employs artificial instrumental variables, as developed by Bayer et al. (2004). The main conclusions are twofold. On the one hand, cultural diversity increases regional attractiveness. On the other hand, average cultural distance greatly weakens regional attractiveness, even when the presence of network effect is controlled for. |
| Keywords: | migration, cultural diversity, cultural distance, destination choice, sorting |
| JEL: | R2 Z1 |
| Date: | 2014–06–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20140066&r=mig |
| By: | Bratsberg, Bernt (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Raaum, Oddbjørn (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Based on individual longitudinal data, we examine the evolution of employment and earnings of post‐EU accession Eastern European labour immigrants to Norway for a period of up to eight years after entry. We find that the migrants were particularly vulnerable to the negative labour demand shock generated by the financial crisis. During the winter months of 2008/09, the fraction of immigrant men claiming unemployment insurance benefits rose from below 2 to 14 per cent. Some of this increase turned out to be persistent, and unemployment remained considerably higher among immigrants than natives even three years after the crisis. Although we find that negative labour demand shocks raise the probability of return migration, the majority of the labour migrants directly affected by the downturn stayed in Norway and claimed unemployment insurance benefits. |
| Keywords: | migration, assimilation, social insurance |
| JEL: | F22 H55 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8291&r=mig |
| By: | Bratsberg, Bernt (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Raaum, Oddbjørn (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Using longitudinal data from the date of arrival, we study long‐term labor market and social insurance outcomes for all major immigrant cohorts to Norway since 1970. Immigrants from high-income countries performed as natives, while labor migrants from low‐income source countries had declining employment rates and increasing disability program participation over the lifecycle. Refugees and family migrants assimilated during the initial period upon arrival, but labor market convergence halted after a decade and was accompanied by rising social insurance rates. For the children of labor migrants of the 1970s, we uncover evidence of intergenerational assimilation in education, earnings and fertility. |
| Keywords: | migration, assimilation, social insurance |
| JEL: | F22 H55 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8292&r=mig |
| By: | Anastasia Litina (CREA, Université de Luxembourg); Simone Moriconi (Università Cattolica di Milano, Italy); Skerdilajda Zanaj (CREA, Université de Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | This paper theoretically and empirically advances the hypothesis that differences in environmental preferences can be traced to cultural differences. In particular, we argue that environmental attitudes such as the willingness to pay for the environment are not solely the effect of local environmental conditions on individual attitudes. On the contrary, we establish that they can also be accounted for by cultural differences accross countries. To establish our hypothesis we exploit the natural experiment of international migration flows and establish that the environmental culture of migrants, as has been formed in their country of origin and transmitted accross generations, is still prevalent in the host country. Interestingly these culture differences with respect to environmental awareness are prevalent despite the fact that all migrants in a host country are exposed to the same local environment. In the presence of multiple environmental problems that require collective action, comprehending the driving forces behind the formation of an environmental culture, a potential driver of environmental policies, is critical. |
| Keywords: | Cultural Transmission, Migration, Environmental Preferences |
| JEL: | Q50 Q58 R23 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:14-12&r=mig |
| By: | Gandolfi, Davide (Macalester College, Minnesota); Halliday, Timothy J. (University of Hawaii at Manoa); Robertson, Raymond (Macalester College, Minnesota) |
| Abstract: | Neoclassical trade theory suggests that factor price convergence should follow increased commercial integration. Rising commercial integration and foreign direct investment followed the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Mexico. This paper evaluates the degree of wage convergence between Mexico and the United States between 1988 and 2011. We apply a synthetic panel approach to employment survey data and a more descriptive approach to Census data from Mexico and the US. First, we find no evidence of long-run wage convergence among cohorts characterized by low migration propensities although this was, in part, due to large macroeconomic shocks. On the other hand, we do find some evidence of convergence for workers with high migration propensities. Finally, we find evidence of convergence in the border of Mexico vis-à-vis its interior in the 1990s but this was reversed in the 2000s. |
| Keywords: | migration, labor-market integration, factor price equalization |
| JEL: | F15 F16 J31 F22 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8254&r=mig |
| By: | Francis Mwesigye (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies); Tomoya Matsumoto (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies); Keijiro Otsuka (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies) |
| Abstract: | While customary land tenure systems are still prevalent in most African countries, they are believed to be evolving to private land ownership. However, questions about how they are evolving and what determines this evolution remain un-answered. This study contributes to the literature by empirically analyzing the process of the evolution of land tenure systems in Uganda using community-, household-, and parcel-level data. By tracing rural-to-rural migration patterns, we found that immigrant-dominated and ethnically diverse communities have a higher incidence of private land ownership. As an implication of the evolution of land tenure system, we found that land markets are more active in immigrant communities, which enhances efficiency in land allocation through land transactions. In fact, we found a large and significant inverse relationship between farm size and productivity in communities with communal land ownership, and an insignificant relationship in communities with more privately owned land. These findings suggest that rural-to-rural migration, through weakening traditional social systems, promotes the shift from communal to individual land ownership which, in turn, boosts land transactions and efficient land use. |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:14-09&r=mig |
| By: | Giulia Bettin; Andrea Presbitero; Nicola Spatafora |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how international remittances are affected by structural characteristics, macroeconomic conditions, and adverse shocks in both source and recipient economies. We exploit a novel, rich panel data set, covering bilateral remittances from 103 Italian provinces to 107 developing countries over the period 2005-2011. We find that remittances are negatively correlated with the business cycle in recipient countries, and increase in response to adverse exogenous shocks, such as natural disasters or large declines in the terms of trade. Remittances are positively correlated with economic conditions in the source province. Nevertheless, in the presence of similar negative shocks to both source and recipient economies, remittances remain counter-cyclical with respect to the recipient country. |
| Keywords: | Workers remittances;Italy;Developing countries;Business cycles;Economic models;Shocks, Vulnerability, Gravity model, migrant, bilateral remittances, official remittances, migration, workers ’ remittances, remittance inflows, capital flows, international remittances, remittance flows, data on remittances, migrant remittances, role of remittances, increase in remittances, migrants ’ remittances, global remittances, remittance outflows, impact of remittances, remittance data, effect of remittances, remittance corridor, effect of remittances on poverty, worker remittances, recipient of remittances, recipients of remittance, impact of remittances on growth, distribution of remittances, remitters, recipients of remittances, remittance transfers, data on remittance flows, emigrant remittances, specific remittance, barriers to remittances, remittance corridors, remittance channels, determinants of remittances, diaspora, send remittances, growth rate of remittances, outward remittances |
| Date: | 2014–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:14/13&r=mig |
| By: | Cristea, Ana Ionela |
| Abstract: | The integration of third country migrants into society has gained a high importance in the European Union Member States. This paper aims to identify the existing practices in providing legal aid to the third country migrants and the instruments used for their integration. |
| Keywords: | legislation, migrants, integration |
| JEL: | F5 |
| Date: | 2014–07–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:57088&r=mig |
| By: | Cristea, Ana Ionela |
| Abstract: | The complex migration flows in the European Union has gained a high interest during the last years among the policy makers, researchers, international actors and civil society. This paper aims to identify and describe the migration policy, legislation and response of governmental and non-governmental actors and organizations, at the national and international level, and their interaction with complex migration flows in the European Union. |
| Keywords: | migration policy, legislation, migration flows |
| JEL: | F5 |
| Date: | 2014–07–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:57229&r=mig |
| By: | Jellal, Mohamed |
| Abstract: | The main purpose of this paper is to study the economic behavior of migrants under uncertainty . We show , in particular, that the impact of the probability of return remains ambiguous regarding both the savings and labor participation of the migrants , this theoritical finding seems to relativize those in the literature on this topic |
| Keywords: | Diaspora, Uncertainty, Saving, Labor participation |
| JEL: | D8 E2 E21 F22 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–06–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:57236&r=mig |