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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Akcigit, Ufuk; Baslandze, Salomé; Stantcheva, Stefanie |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of top tax rates on inventors' mobility since 1977. We put special emphasis on "superstar" inventors, those with the most and most valuable patents. We use panel data on inventors from the United States and European Patent Offices to track inventors' locations over time and combine it with international effective top tax rate data. We construct a detailed set of proxies for inventors' counterfactual incomes in each possible destination country including, among others, measures of patent quality and technological fit with each potential destination. We find that superstar top 1% inventors are significantly affected by top tax rates when deciding where to locate. The elasticity of the number of domestic inventors to the net-of-tax rate is relatively small, between 0.04 and 0.06, while the elasticity of the number of foreign inventors is much larger, around 1.3. The elasticities to top net-of-tax rates decline as one moves down the quality distribution of inventors. Inventors who work in multinational companies are more likely to take advantage of tax differentials. On the other hand, if the company of an inventor has a higher share of its research activity in a given country, the inventor is less sensitive to the tax rate in that country. |
| Keywords: | income taxes; innovation; inventors; migration; taxation |
| JEL: | F22 H24 H31 J44 J61 O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10565&r=mig |
| By: | Silvia Appelt; Brigitte van Beuzekom; Fernando Galindo-Rueda; Roberto de Pinho |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the factors that influence the international mobility of research scientists using a new measure of mobility derived from changes in affiliations reported by publishing scientists in a major global index of scholarly publications over the period 1996-2011. Using a gravity-based empirical framework, our research shows that measures of geographic and socioeconomic and scientific distance correlate negatively with scientist mobility between two countries. Scientific collaboration appears to be a major factor associated with the mobility of scientists. The analysis shows that the mobility of scientists particularly relies on flows of tertiary-level students in the opposite direction, from destination to origin country. This provides strong evidence that brain circulation is a complex and multi-directional phenomenon. For a majority of country pairs (dyads) in our sample, the mobility of scientists is generally better described by commensurate knowledge flows in both directions, rather than one dominating the other. The analysis also shows that mobility can be positively influenced by convergence in economic conditions and resources dedicated to R&D, as well as reduced visa-related restrictions. |
| Date: | 2015–04–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaaa:2015/2-en&r=mig |
| By: | Andreas Beerli; Ronald Indergand |
| Abstract: | A pervasive, yet little acknowledged feature of international migration to developed countries is that newly arriving immigrants are increasingly highly skilled. This paper analyses the factors affecting the change in the skill composition of immigrants in Switzerland between 1980 and 2010 using a framework suggested by Grogger & Hanson (2011). Our findings suggest that improved schooling in origin countries of immigrants and a shift in the relative demand for highly educated workers in destinations stand out as the two most important drivers. Yet, while improved schooling would predict only a modest increase in the share of highly educated immigrants and a large increase of middle educated immigrants, we show that demand shifts associated with computerisation are crucial to understand why the share of highly educated immigrants increased sharply while the share of middle educated workers merely stabilised. Additionally, our framework allows evaluating the effect of changes in immigration policy. We find that the recent abolition of quotas for workers from European countries through a bilateral agreement with the EU in 2002 had a small but negative effect on the educational quality of immigrants. |
| Keywords: | International migration, self selection, migration policy, job polarisation |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zur:uceswp:012&r=mig |
| By: | Cristina Cattaneo (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)); Emanuele Massetti (Georgia Institute of Technology, CESIfo and Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)) |
| Abstract: | We analyse whether migration is an adaptation that households employ to cope with climate in Ghana and Nigeria. If migration is part of the present adaptation portfolio of households in developing countries, it is reasonable to expect that it will also be an adaptation to future climate change. It is important to stress that we are interested in long-term climatic conditions rather than in short-term weather fluctuations. The data to test these predictions are drawn from two different household surveys: the Nigeria General Household Survey and the Ghana Living Standard Survey. We find a hill-shaped relationship between temperature in the dry sea son and the propensity to migrate in households that operate farms. We also find a significant hill-shaped relationship between precipitations in the wet seasons and the propensity to migrate in farm households. Climate has instead no significant impact on the propensity to migrate in non-farm households. Climate change scenarios generated by General Circulation model reveal that, ceteris paribus, migration may decline in Ghana and in Nigeria. |
| Keywords: | Climate Change Impacts, Migration, Development Economics |
| JEL: | O15 Q54 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2015.29&r=mig |
| By: | Venhorst V.; Cörvers F. (GSBE) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the impact of spatial mobility on job match quality by using a data set of recent Dutch university and college graduates We find positive wage returns related to spatial mobility. However, after controlling for the self-selection of migrants with an IV approach, this effect is no longer significant. We also find that, for our alternative job-match measures, where there is evidence of migrant self-selection, controlling for self-selection strongly reduces the effect of spatial mobility on job match quality. In some cases, the returns on spatial mobility are found to be negative, which may signal forced spatial mobility. |
| Keywords: | Analysis of Education; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials; Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers; Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics; |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J31 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2015009&r=mig |