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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Ruist, Joakim (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University ) |
| Abstract: | This study estimates the fiscal cost of refugee immigration. This is done by calculating the total value of economic resources that are redistributed through the public sector in Sweden in 2007 to the population of immigrants who once arrived in the country as refugees or their family members. The total redistribution corresponds to 1.0% of Swedish GDP in the same year. Four-fifths of it is due to lower public per-capita revenues from refugees compared with the total population, and one-fifth is due to higher per-capita public costs associated with refugees.<p> |
| Keywords: | immigration; public finances; refugees |
| JEL: | H20 H50 J19 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0613&r=mig |
| By: | Manish Pandey ; Amrita Ray Chaudhuri |
| Abstract: | We document that immigration to U.S. states has increased the mass of workers at the lower range of the skill distribution. We use this change in skill distribution of workers to analyze the effect of immigration on wages. Our model allows firms to endogenously respond to the immigration-induced changes in skill distribution in terms of their decisions (i) to enter different industries which require the use of different technologies; (ii) to choose across technologies that differ in their skill-intensity; and (iii) to employ workers of different skill levels. Allowing these mechanisms to interact, we find that, in line with much of the related empirical literature, immigration has a small effect on average real wages of low skilled workers for U.S. states. We further show that immigration increases the wage inequality between workers of different skill levels in all states, and that the effect of immigration on wages and wage inequality varies systematically with the volume of immigration across states. |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:win:winwop:2015-01&r=mig |
| By: | Elenka Brenna (Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore ); Federico Spandonaro (Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata" ) |
| Abstract: | In recent years, the accreditation of private hospitals followed by the decentralisation of the Italian NHS into 21 regional health systems, has furnished a good empirical ground for investigating the "voting with their feet" Tiebout principle. We consider the competition between public and private hospitals - and the rules supervising the financial agreements between regional authorities and providers of hospital care - as a potential determinant factor for cross border mobility in the Italian NHS. The model we propose considers an institutional variable set at a regional level that, ceteris paribus, succeeds in driving CBM flows towards accredited private hospitals. We assume that some northern and central regions accredited private providers not only to meet the internal need of hospital care, but also with the aim of attracting patients' inflows from other regions, particularly from the South of Italy, where the services supplied do not cover such a broad range of hospital specialization and/or do not guarantee the same perceived quality of care. The geographical gradient in this context is considerable: in 2011 the southern regions show a negative balance of - 1.046 billion euro for patients' migration, while the northern ones report a surplus of 863 million euro. Evidence, both from the normative inspection and the statistical analysis, suggests the presence of strategic incentives provided by some regions with the twofold objective of accrediting a good quality health system and contextually overcoming the risk of production excess by driving financial resources from patients' inflows. |
| Keywords: | patient choice, hospital accreditation, competition, cross border mobility, federal NHS. |
| JEL: | I11 I18 H3 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def009&r=mig |
| By: | Cansu Unver |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether broadband facilitates migration flows from OECD to OECD countries, as well as non-OECD to OECD countries. The selection of both OECD and non-OECD origin countries are based on the magnitude of the flows, examining those with a minimum rate of 0.1 (10 per 1,000 population), followed by those with 0.3 and 0.5 (30 and 50 per 1,000). We do not consider migration flows of less than 0.1 (10 per 1,000) as it may not be possible to calculate how broadband affects this flow. We found a strong and positive effect of broadband on migration flows between 1995 and 2009. This supports the fact that broadband connections affect migration flows from source to home country by improving the flow of information about the host which affects migration decisions from the source. This effect is more prominent for non-OECD to OECD country pairs. Results improve for larger thresholds due to the fact that we believe higher frequency of moving - although capturing fewer country pairs - will produce more accurate results. |
| Keywords: | Determinant of migration, broadband penetration rate, non-linear instrumental variable, OECD and non-OECD countries |
| JEL: | C5 F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:15-01&r=mig |
| By: | Peter Cirenza |
| Abstract: | This paper uses empirical evidence drawn from newly constructed datasets to assess the impact of geographic clustering on the assimilation and occupational mobility of Irish immigrants in the United States in the late nineteenth century. It finds that geographic clustering was quite pronounced for Irish immigrants in this time period. Irish immigrants were primarily drawn to the large metropolitan areas of the Northeast, reflecting the importance of these areas as points of entry to the US, areas of prior settlement by previous generations of Irish immigrants, as well as major centres for employment for new immigrants. This paper also finds that higher levels of geographic clustering were associated with both lower degrees of assimilation and lower occupational outcomes. The benefits of geographic clustering in the job market often described in this literature do not appear to have existed for Irish immigrants in the late nineteenth century. These results would also support the view that living in a more ethnically concentrated community, though perhaps improving the initial starting position of Irish immigrants in America, may have come at the expense of slower subsequent assimilation and reduced occupational mobility. |
| Keywords: | international migration; geographic mobility; immigrant; immigrant labour; immigration; economic history |
| JEL: | N0 R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:60964&r=mig |
| By: | Javier Ortega ; Gregory Verdugo |
| Abstract: | Using a large administrative French panel data set for 1976-2007, we examine how low- educated immigration affects the wages, employment, occupations and locations of blue-collar native workers. The natives in the sample are initially in occupations heterogeneous in the presence of immigrants, which might reflect a different degree of competition with low-educated immigrants. We first show that larger immigration inflows into locations are accompanied by larger outflows of negatively selected natives from these locations. At the same time, larger immigrant inflows into occupations come with larger outflows of positively selected natives towards occupations with less routine tasks. While we find no negative impact on employment, there is substantial evidence that immigration lowers the median annual wages of natives. The estimated negative effects are also much larger in cross-section than in estimates controlling for composition effect, which is consistent with the idea that endogenous changes in occupation and location attenuate the impact of immigration on natives' wages. We also find much larger wage decreases for workers initially in non-tradable sectors and more particularly in the construction sector, which are much less likely to upgrade their occupation or change location in response to immigration inflows. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, wages, employment |
| JEL: | J15 J31 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1333&r=mig |
| By: | Clarke, Andrew (University of Melbourne ); Isphording, Ingo E. (IZA ) |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of language deficiency on the health production of childhood migrants to Australia. Our identification strategy relies on a quasi-experiment comparing immigrants arriving at different ages and from different linguistic origins by utilising a measure of differences along a continuous range of linguistic distances. Our main results indicate a large negative effect of English deficiency on physical health that is robust to a range of different specifications. In the presence of considerable non-classical measurement error in self-reported language proficiency, our results provide lower and upper bounds for the true effect of English deficiency on health of one half and a full standard deviation in the health score respectively. The empirical analysis is framed in terms of a Grossman model which indicates a twofold role of language skills in health production: language deficiency directly affects the efficiency of health production and indirectly affects access to health inputs. We provide some suggestive evidence on the relative importance of these distinct roles. |
| Keywords: | international migration, language skills, health |
| JEL: | F22 I12 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8846&r=mig |
| By: | Zheng , Yannu (CIRCLE, Lund University ); Ejermo , Olof (CIRCLE, Lund University ) |
| Abstract: | Using a new database that matches patent applications by Swedish residents with demographic information from 1985 to 2007, we examine differences in inventive performance by individuals of foreign and domestic origins, in terms of quantity (probability of patenting, total number of patents per inventor) and quality (forward citations, probability of grant) of patents. We further compare adult and child immigrants with their Swedish-born counterparts. Holding other variables constant, we find that the immigrants are generally less likely to patent than the Swedish-born. Nonetheless, the general group of immigrant inventors, including those who migrated as adults, perform as well as the native inventors and therefore seem more positively selected. Compared with the Swedish-born, the immigrants who migrated as children are disadvantaged in both quantity and quality of patents, which may be linked to a lack of Sweden-specific human capital. Whether education was received in Sweden does not seem to make a difference for the immigrants who migrated as adults. In summary, this study provides an initial impression of the inventive performance, contribution, and challenges of distinct groups of immigrants who have differing characteristics and backgrounds. |
| Keywords: | immigrants; inventors; children; adults |
| JEL: | J15 J24 N30 O31 |
| Date: | 2015–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2015_009&r=mig |
| By: | Razin, Assaf ; Sadka, Efraim ; Suwankiri, Benjarong |
| Abstract: | We develop a dynamic political-economic theory of welfare state and immigration policies, featuring three distinct voting groups: skilled workers, unskilled workers, and old retirees. The essence of inter - and intra-generational redistribution of a typical welfare system is captured with a proportional tax on labor income to finance a transfer in a balanced-budget manner. We provide an analytical characterization of political-economic equilibrium policy rules consisting of the tax rate, the skill composition of migrants, and the total number of migrants. When none of these groups enjoy a majority (50 percent of the voters or more), political coalitions will form. With overlapping generations and policy-determined influx of immigrants, the formation of the political coalitions changes over time. These future changes are taken into account when policies are shaped. Naturally, a lower rate of population growth (that is, an aging population) increases the political clout of the old (the left group). But it also increases the burden on the young (particularly, the skilled). |
| Keywords: | center; dynamics of left and right coalitions; intra- and inter-generational transfers |
| JEL: | E10 F15 H10 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10429&r=mig |
| By: | Yuxin Yao (Tilburg University ); Jan C. van Ours (Tilburg University ) |
| Abstract: | Many immigrants in the Netherlands have poor Dutch language skills. They face problems in speaking and reading Dutch. Our paper investigates how these problems affect their labor market performance in terms of employment, hours of work and wages. We find that for female immigrants language problems have significantly negative effects on hourly wages but not on employment probability and hours of work. For male immigrants language problems do not affect employment probability, hours of work or hourly wages. |
| Keywords: | Language skills, immigrants, labor market performance |
| JEL: | J24 J15 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1505&r=mig |
| By: | Martin Guzi ; Martin Kahanec ; Lucia Mýtna Kureková |
| Abstract: | The role of institutions in immigrant integration remains underexplored in spite of its essential significance for integration policies. This paper adopts the Varieties of Capitalism framework to study the institutional determinants of immigrant-native gaps in host labor markets. Using the EU LFS we first measure immigrant-native gaps in labor force participation, unemployment, low-skilled employment and temporary employment. We distinguish the gaps that can be explained by immigrant-native differences in characteristics from those that cannot be explained by such differences, as these require different integration policy approaches. In the second stage we measure the effects of institutional and contextual variables on explained and unexplained immigrant-native gaps. Our findings confirm that institutional contexts play a significant role in immigrant integration, and highlight the importance of tailoring policy approaches with regard to the causes of immigrant-native gaps. |
| Keywords: | immigrant integration, integration policy, discrimination, labor market, Varieties of Capitalism |
| JEL: | J15 J18 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cel:dpaper:27&r=mig |
| By: | Hansen, Marianne Frank (Danish Rational Economic Agents Model (DREAM) ); Schultz-Nielsen, Marie Louise (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit ); Tranæs, Torben (Rockwool Foundation Research Unit ) |
| Abstract: | All over Europe, ageing populations threaten nations' financial sustainability. In this paper we examine the potential of immigration to strengthen financial sustainability. We look at a particularly challenging case, namely that of Denmark, which has extensive tax-financed welfare programmes that provide a high social safety net. The analysis is based on a forecast for the entire Danish economy made using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model with overlapping generations. Net contributions to the public purse are presented both as cross-sectional figures for a long time horizon and as average individual life-cycle contributions. The main conclusion is that immigrants from richer countries have a positive fiscal impact, while immigrants from poorer countries have a large negative one. The negative effect is caused by both a weak labour market performance and early retirement in combination with the universal Danish welfare schemes. |
| Keywords: | immigration, sustainable fiscal policy, welfare benefits |
| JEL: | F22 E62 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8844&r=mig |
| By: | Monras, Joan (Sciences Po, Paris ) |
| Abstract: | Previous literature shows that internal migration rates are strongly procyclical. This would seem to imply that geographic relocation does not help mitigate negative local economic shocks during recessions. This paper shows that this is not the case. I document that net in-migration rates decreased in areas more affected by the Great Recession. Using various IV strategies that rely on the importance of the construction sector and the indebtedness of households before the crisis, I conclude that internal migration might help to alleviate up to one third of the effects of the crisis on wages in the most affected locations. This is due to a disproportionate decrease in in-migration into those locations rather than an increase in out-migration. More generally, I show that differences in population growth rates across locations are mainly explained by differences in in-migration rates rather than in out-migration rates. I introduce a model to guide the empirical analysis and to quantify the spill-over effects caused by internal migration. |
| Keywords: | internal migration, local labor demand shocks |
| JEL: | J61 J20 J30 F22 J43 R23 R58 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8840&r=mig |
| By: | Giuseppe De Arcangelis (Sapienza University of Rome ); Edoardo Di Porto (Università di Napoli Federico II, CSEF and UCFS, Uppsala University ); Gianluca Santoni (CEPII ) |
| Abstract: | We assess the effect of migrants' stock on the production structure of the Italian provinces (NUTS3) in 1995-2006. Although the investigated time span is very short, the effect is small but statistically significant: a doubling in the ratio of foreign-born residents to the province population induces a significant increase in manufactures' value added with respect to services' value added between 12 and 21 per cent. These effects are more intense when considering an increase in foreign-born populations drawn from countries more different to Italy (in terms of GDP per capita and educational attainment). These results are compatible with the reduced form of a two-sector model where we assume that production is performed with one mobile factor and two sector-specific CES labor composites of simple and complex tasks. If migrants and natives have different productivity when performing simple or complex tasks, an inflow of migrants induces production restructuring in favor of the simple-task intensive sector. |
| Keywords: | Rybczynski Effect, International Migration, Province Labor Markets, Specific Factor Model, Productive Tasks |
| JEL: | F22 C25 |
| Date: | 2015–02–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:390&r=mig |
| By: | Ray Chaudhuri, A. (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research ); Pandey, Manish |
| Abstract: | We document that immigration to U.S. states has increased the mass of workers at the lower range of the skill distribution. We use this change in skill distribution of workers to analyze the effect of immigration on wages. Our model allows firms to endogenously respond to the immigration-induced changes in skill distribution in terms of their decisions (i) to enter different industries which require the use of different technologies; (ii) to choose across<br/>technologies that differ in their skill-intensity; and (iii) to employ workers of different skill levels. Allowing these mechanisms to interact, we find that, in line with much of the related empirical literature, immigration has a small effect on average real wages of low skilled workers for U.S. states. We further show that immigration increases the wage inequality between workers of different skill levels in all states, and that the effect of immigration on wages and wage inequality varies systematically with the volume of immigration across states. |
| Keywords: | Immigration; technology adaptation; wages |
| JEL: | J61 J31 J24 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tiu:tiucen:d785f42d-cd61-4744-9ec7-907df4a32886&r=mig |
| By: | Sabatini, Fabio |
| Abstract: | Review of Immigrant Networks and Social Capital by Carl L. Bankston III. Cambridge, UK, and Malden, MA: Polity. |
| Keywords: | Social capital; social networks; social ties; immigration; United States. |
| JEL: | A1 A10 J6 Y3 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:62116&r=mig |
| By: | Parida, Jajati Keshari |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to study the role of MGNREGS in improving the household living standards and it impact on seasonal distress out-migration, conducting a primary survey of 400 households from Mayurbhanj and Jajpur districts of Odisha during 2011-12. The major findings suggest that MGNREGS has contributed enormously in creating job opportunities for the needy poor and socially backward households. The accessibility of NREGS prevented huge number of distress seasonal out migration and brought financial autonomy for the landless poor (Below Poverty Line) and socially backward (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) households through regular wage income. This helped them to come out of hunger and debt traps, and hence an improved living standard. Therefore, the government should take proper measures to continue this programme in rural areas and allocate the resources based on demands calculation to avoid wastage of funds. Furthermore, an attempt should be made to create inter-industry linkages within rural regions through this programme that could generate a set of economic multipliers; and hence will provide sustainable source of rural employments and income generation to the socially and economically marginalized groups in India. |
| Keywords: | Regional Development, Migration and Households’ wellbeing |
| JEL: | I31 R23 R58 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61933&r=mig |
| By: | Maurer-Fazio, Margaret (Bates College ); Connelly, Rachel (Bowdoin College ); Thi Tran, Ngoc-Han (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva ) |
| Abstract: | China's linguistic and geographic diversity leads many Chinese individuals to identify themselves and others not simply as Chinese, but rather by their native place and provincial origin. Negative personality traits are often attributed to people from specific areas. People from Henan, in particular, appear to be singled out as possessing a host of negative traits. Such prejudice does not necessarily lead to wage discrimination. Whether or not it does depends on the nature of the local labor markets. This chapter uses data from the 2008 and 2009 migrant surveys of the Rural-Urban Migration in China Project (RUMiC) to explore whether native-place wage discrimination affects migrant workers in China's urban labor markets. We analyze the question of wage discrimination among migrants by estimating wage equations for men and women, controlling for human capital characteristics, province of origin, and destination city. Of key interest here are the variables representing provinces of origin. We find no systemic differences by province of origin in the hourly wages of male and female migrants. However, in a few specific cases, we find that migrants from a particular province earn significantly less than those from local areas. Male migrants from Henan in Shanghai are paid much less than their fellow migrants from Anhui. In the Jiangsu cities of Nanjing and Wuxi, female migrants from nearby Anhui are paid much less than intra-provincial Jiangsu migrants. |
| Keywords: | migrants, discrimination, wages, China, stereotypes, native-place, labor markets |
| JEL: | J71 J23 J61 J31 O15 O53 P36 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8842&r=mig |
| By: | Mario Izquierdo (Banco de España ); Juan F. Jimeno (Banco de España ); Aitor Lacuesta (Banco de España ) |
| Abstract: | Since the start of the Great Recession the unemployment rate in Spain has risen by almost 18 percentage points. The unemployment crisis is affecting all population groups, including the more highly educated; but it is even more acute for the foreign population, whose unemployment rate is close to 40%. This situation follows a period of very high immigration flows (1995-2007) that set the number of foreigners living in Spain at 11% of the population. This paper documents the characteristics of recent migration flows to Spain and compares how foreign and Spanish nationals are moving abroad and across Spanish regions in response to the unemployment crisis. Building on this comparison, we shed some light on the selection of migrants by educational level and offer conjecture as to the implications of the migration outflows observed in recent years. |
| Keywords: | migration inflows and outflows, unemployment, educational selection of migrants. |
| JEL: | F22 J64 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:1503&r=mig |