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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Giovanni Peri; Kevin Shih; Chad Sparber |
| Abstract: | In April of 2007 and 2008, the U.S. randomly allocated 65,000 H-1B temporary work permits to foreign-born skilled workers. About 88,000 requests for computer-related H-1B permits were declined in each of those two years. This paper exploits random H-1B variation across U.S. cities to analyze how these supply shocks affected labor market outcomes for computer-related workers. We find that negative H-1B supply shocks are robustly associated with declines in foreign-born computer-related employment, while native-born computer employment either falls or remains constant. Most of the correlation between H-1B supply shocks and foreign employment is due to rationing that varies with a city's initial dependence upon H-1B workers. Variation in random, lottery-driven, unexpected shocks is too small to identify significant effects on foreign employment in the full sample of cities. However, we do find that random rationing affects foreign employment in cities that are highly dependent upon the H-1B program. Altogether, the results support the existence of complementarities between native and foreign-born H-1B computer workers. |
| JEL: | F22 J61 O33 R10 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21175&r=mig |
| By: | Mariotti, Francesco (University College London); Mumford, Karen A. (University of York); Pena-Boquete, Yolanda (University of Vigo) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the migration movements of power couples (couples where both members have at least a college degree), half power and no-power couples within Australia. We explicitly allow for potential correlation of these movements with local labour market features. Our results support the urbanisation hypothesis for ongoing couples over either the colocation or tied-mover models. Partnered college graduates like to live in major cities regardless of their gender or the qualifications of their partner. |
| Keywords: | gender, graduates, colocation, tied-mover, urbanisation, migration, power couples |
| JEL: | J3 J7 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9059&r=mig |
| By: | mücahit navruz (Selcuk University); Mehmet Akif Çukurçay (Selcuk University) |
| Abstract: | Until recently, Turkey known as a source or transit country in migration routes, transformed into a target country for refugees due to civil wars and foreign interventions in countries of the region. Refugee influxes caused by the civil war in Syria has made Turkey one of the countries with the highest refugee population in the world. With the start of the civil war in Syria, Turkey applied 'open door policy' and temporary protection was granted to all Syrians on prima facie basis. Although the adoption of the psychological threshold of 100 thousand refugees at the initial period of the crisis, threshold was exceeded in a very short time and assumptions of Turkish government about civil war have not realized. Furthermore Al-Asad regime has strengthened its position because of the disharmony and inconsistency in opposition groups. With the interval of radical islamic groups, parallel with the decline in public support in Western countries, Syrian policy of Westren governments began to change. Active support to opposition declined and civil war turned into a vicious cycle. The most significant effect of this situation on Turkey is transformation of short-term guests into permanent refugees. Prolongation of the civil war reducing the Syrian's prospects of return, made Turkey host one of the most populous diasporas in the world. With increasing economic and social burdens, Turkey's ‘human-rights based approach’ to Syrian refugee policy bagan to show signs of exhaustion and ‘security based approach’ came up to the agenda. Main factor causing this condition is perception changes of Turkish people against Syrian refugees. In this paper, factors affecting the perception of the Turkish people will be examined. |
| Keywords: | Refugees of Syrian Civil War, Urban Refugees, Host-Refugee Relations |
| JEL: | F22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:1003689&r=mig |
| By: | Moretti, Enrico; Wilson, Daniel J |
| Abstract: | Using data on the universe of U.S. patents filed between 1976 and 2010, we quantify how sensitive is migration by star scientist to changes in personal and business tax differentials across states. We uncover large, stable, and precisely estimated effects of personal and corporate taxes on star scientists’ migration patterns. The long run elasticity of mobility relative to taxes is 1.6 for personal income taxes, 2.3 for state corporate income tax and -2.6 for the investment tax credit. The effect on mobility is small in the short run, and tends to grow over time. We find no evidence of pre-trends: Changes in mobility follow changes in taxes and do not to precede them. Consistent with their high income, star scientists migratory flows are sensitive to changes in the 99th percentile marginal tax rate, but are insensitive to changes in taxes for the median income. As expected, the effect of corporate income taxes is concentrated among private sector inventors: no effect is found on academic and government researchers. Moreover, corporate taxes only matter in states where the wage bill enters the state’s formula for apportioning multi-state income. No effect is found in states that apportion income based only on sales (in which case labor’s location has little or no effect on the tax bill). We also find no evidence that changes in state taxes are correlated with changes in the fortunes of local firms in the innovation sector in the years leading up to the tax change. Overall, we conclude that state taxes have significant effect of the geographical location of star scientists and possibly other highly skilled workers. While there are many other factors that drive when innovative individual and innovative companies decide to locate, there are enough firms and workers on the margin that relative taxes matter. |
| Keywords: | economic geography; innovation; taxes |
| JEL: | H2 J01 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10600&r=mig |
| By: | Angela Faßhauer; Katrin Rehdanz |
| Abstract: | This paper is the first to link economic theory with empirical life-satisfaction analyses referring to internal migration. We derive an extension of the Roback (1982) model to account for benefits from regional amenities in the utility function, while controlling for income, housing costs, and migration costs. Using highly disaggregated spatial panel information on people’s migration decisions and their life satisfaction for Germany, we provide an empirical investigation of the theoretical model by applying an individual fixed-effects model to rule out selection bias, while accounting for endogeneity of income. We find that short-term benefits from regional amenities represent about 21 percent of household income. These findings are robust to a number of alternative specifications. |
| Keywords: | Internal migration, regional amenities, life satisfaction, Germany |
| JEL: | A12 C33 R23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp748&r=mig |
| By: | Steingress, Walter (Banque de France) |
| Abstract: | Immigrants can increase international trade by shifting preferences towards the goods of their country of origin and by reducing bilateral transaction costs. Using geographical variations across US states for the period 1970 to 2005, we quantify the impact of immigrants on intermediate goods imports. We address endogeneity and reverse causality – which arises if migration from a country of origin to a US state is driven by trade opportunities between the two locations – by exploiting the exogenous allocation of refugees within the US refugee resettlement program. Our results are robust to an alternative identification strategy, based on the large influx of Central American immigrants to the United States after hurricane Mitch. We find that a 10 percent increase in recent immigrants to a given US state raises intermediate imports from those immigrants' country of origin by 1.5 percent. |
| Keywords: | international trade, international migration, political refugees, hurricane Mitch |
| JEL: | F14 F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9058&r=mig |
| By: | Cigagna, Claudia (University of Cagliari); Sulis, Giovanni (University of Cagliari) |
| Abstract: | Using data on migration flows for a sample of 15 OECD countries over the period 1980-2006, we analyse the effect of unemployment and labour institutions such as employment protection legislation, coverage of unemployment benefits, minimum wages, union power and tax wedge on migration flows. We allow for interactions of these institutions with migration entry laws, as both affect equilibrium wages and employment in destination countries, influencing mobility decisions of immigrants. We find strong and negative effects of unemployment, employment protection and migration policy on flows. The negative effect of migration policy on flows is larger in countries with high than in countries with low employment protection. We find positive effects for minimum wages, unemployment benefits and union power. We deal with potential endogeneity of the variables of interest and report heterogeneous effects depending on the group of countries of origin and destination. |
| Keywords: | international migration flows, labour market institutions, migration policies |
| JEL: | J61 J50 F22 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9016&r=mig |
| By: | Santeramo, Fabio Gaetano; Morelli, Mariangela |
| Abstract: | Gravity models are widely used to study tourism flows. The peculiarities of the segmented international demand for agritourism in Italy is examined by means of novel approach: a panel data quantile regression. We characterize the international demand for Italian agritourism with a large dataset, by considering data of thirty-three countries of origin, from 1998 to 2010. Distance and income are major determinants, but we also found that mutual agreements and high urbanization rates in countries of origin are associated with larger flows of incoming tourists. |
| Keywords: | Flows, Arrivals, Agritourism, Gravity, PPML, Quantile Regression |
| JEL: | F22 L83 Q18 Q19 R23 |
| Date: | 2015–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:64446&r=mig |
| By: | Khanh Hoang (ANU College of Law, Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | In recent years, there has been significant interest internationally in the role that migration law and policies may play in aiding innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth. Several countries, including Australia, Canada, the US and Singapore have established various investment and entrepreneur visas aimed at attracting foreign investment and human capital in return for permanent residency or citizenship. This paper analyses the effectiveness of Australia’s migration policies in strengthening its innovation system and provides suggestions for reform. It identifies shortages in venture capital and access to overseas entrepreneurial talent as two urgent areas for reform of the innovation system. Australia’s visa offerings under its Business Innovation and Investment Program - such as Significant Investment Visa (SIV) program and the Venture Capital Entrepreneur Visa - have so far failed to address these shortages. The paper draws on experiences from other jurisdictions to suggest avenues for reform of Business Innovation and Investment Program. These reforms could include: widening the ‘complying investment’ criterion for significant investor visa; mandatory investment in venture capital funds, with matching from the Government; and reducing onerous threshold criteria for entry into Australia as an entrepreneur. These proposals for reform, and Australia’s experiences, may provide lessons for other countries seeking to establish similar investment visa programs. |
| Keywords: | migration, innovation, investment, entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | K00 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:1003539&r=mig |
| By: | Sayantan Ghosh Dastidar; Vudayagi Balasubramanyam |
| Abstract: | Much of the recent discussion on the impact of immigrants on the host economies relate to the costs they impose on the host country’s public finances and the labour market rather than their contribution to the growth of incomes, technology and trade. This paper analyses the contribution of immigrants into the UK to the exports of the country. The analysis suggests that immigrants make a significant contribution to the growth of exports of services from the UK. Exports of services account for more than a third of UK’s exports and the immigrants. The statistical analysis suggests that Whilst both the immigrants from the EU contribute to the growth of exports of services from the country the contribution of the immigrants from the Commonwealth is somewhat more than that of the EU immigrants mostly because of the recognised presence of the Commonwealth immigrants in professional and technical occupations in the services sector. |
| Keywords: | immigrations, services |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:81843151&r=mig |
| By: | Aurore Gary; Audrey-Rose Menard |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at explaining how aid, trade and migration in developed nations are connected, in particular in times of economics crisis. It relates to a new strand of the aid allocation literature, which aims at determining how donors’ domestic policies and their political environment can delineate bilateral aid allocations. We use a gravity model framework to jointly determine aid, trade and migration between pairs of developed and developing countries as well as their relation to unemployment in OECD nations. Namely, we focus on the core determinants of these policies with the particular aim of determining whether aid, trade, migration and unemployment policies are interdependent or not. We apply a three-stage least squares method on a data set covering 22 Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries and 153 recipient countries from 2000 and 2010. Our data reveal that not only aid, trade and migration policies affect respectively aid, trade and migration flows but also they affect each other. Likewise, these policies can be substitutes for developed countries unemployment policies. |
| Keywords: | Foreign aid, Trade, Migration. |
| JEL: | F22 F4 F35 O11 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2015-11&r=mig |
| By: | Chen, Yiu Por (Vincent) (City University of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the relationship between fiscal decentralization, which gave greater rural industrialization and fiscal authority to local governments, and the emergence of rural-rural undocumented inter-provincial labor migration during China's initial reform period. A Heckman model is employed to correct for the zero observation problems and to consistently estimate the labor mobility with a modified gravity equation. Given the institutional barriers, the fiscal decentralization has two contending effects on labor market integration: Local economic development promotes labor mobility, but local public goods crowding restrains the inflow of labor at the destination. The crowding effect is stronger at lower levels of government. |
| Keywords: | fiscal decentralization, local economic development, local public goods, rural labor mobility |
| JEL: | H30 J61 J68 D72 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9024&r=mig |
| By: | Dmitry S. Grigoryev (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This article describes the construction and testing of a theoretical model of the socio-economic adaptation (SEA) of immigrants, considering psychological factors as basic. In the analysis of previous studies, acculturation attitudes of immigrants were identified as key psychological factors of SEA for the construction of a theoretical model; the length of stay in the host country and language skills were used as control variables; ethnic and religious identification were used as predictors of acculturation attitudes. A survey of Russian-speaking immigrants in Belgium was carried out and path analysis was used to test the model. We found that (1) acculturation attitudes of immigrants is associated with their level of SEA independently, i.e. regardless of length of stay in the host country or language skills; (2) a high level of SEA is positively associated with orientation toward the host society (integration and assimilation), and negatively associated with orientation toward their own ethnic group (separation); (3) strong ethnic and religious identification may facilitate the orientation of immigrants to their ethnic group, and strong ethnic identification prevents assimilation |
| Keywords: | socio-economic adaptation, acculturation attitudes, ethnic identification, religious identification, acculturation of immigrants, immigration. |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:37psy2015&r=mig |
| By: | Michaela Nováková (University of Economics in Bratislava) |
| Abstract: | Migration of health workers for better opportunities either within the country or abroad creates global concern because of the burden of health systems in developing countries. Migration of health workers caused serious global health problem, which is reflected in all aspects of society - structural, political, social and economic. Migration trends of health workers have been studied since 1960. Nevertheless, there is still an imbalance between rich and poor countries. In many cases, the country loses not only an investment in the education of health professionals, but also benefit the workers in health care. Many health systems in developing countries for years suffered from underinvestment, which also translates to low salaries of health workers and poor working conditions. Employers in the recipient countries have in turn lack of experienced people in specific areas and employment opportunities may obtain brains from other countries. |
| Keywords: | Health workers, migration, brain drain, mobility |
| JEL: | I18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:1003964&r=mig |
| By: | Michel Beine; Serge Coulombe; Wessel Vermeulen |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates whether immigration can mitigate the Dutch disease effects associated with booms in natural resource sectors. We derive predicted changes in the size of the non-tradable sector from a small general-equilibrium model `a la Obstfeld-Rogoff. Using data for Canadian provinces, we find evidence that aggregate immigration mitigates the increase in the size of the non-tradable sector in booming regions. The mitigation effect is due mostly to interprovincial migration and temporary foreign workers. There is no evidence of such an effect for permanent international immigration. Interprovincial migration also results in a spreading effect of Dutch disease from booming to non-booming provinces. |
| Keywords: | Natural Resources, Dutch Disease, Immigration, Mitigation Effect |
| JEL: | F22 O15 R11 R15 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:oxcrwp:151&r=mig |
| By: | Kaczmarczyk, Pawel (Warsaw University); Tyrowicz, Joanna (Warsaw University) |
| Abstract: | We test if migration leads to increased wages. We take the example of Polish migrants to the United Kingdom and focus on the mobility of well educated Poles. We offer insights into absolute and relative change in wages of the migrants, utilizing the data from the UK and Polish labor force surveys. We find that while overall the returns to migration are low, they are negligible or even insignificant for the highly skilled migrants from Poland to the UK. These results hold for both absolute and relative measures. |
| Keywords: | mobility of the highly educated, return to human capital, relative deprivation, Propensity Score Matching |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9057&r=mig |
| By: | Ekrame Boubtane (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne et CERDI - Université d'Auvergne); Jean-Christophe Dumont (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development - OECD); Christophe Rault (LEO - Université d'Orléans) |
| Abstract: | This paper offers a reappraisal of the impact of migration on economic growth for 22 OECD countries between 1986-2006 and relies on a unique data set we compiled that allows us to distinguish net migration of the native-born and foreign-born by skill level. Specifically, after introducing migration in an augmented Solow-Swan model, we estimate a dynamic panel model using a system of generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM) to deal with the risk of an endogeneity bias of the migration variables. Two important findings emerge from our analysis. First, there exists a positive impact of migrants' human capital on economic growth. And second, the contribution of immigrants to human capital accumulation tends to dominate the mechanical dilution effect while the net effect is fairly small. This conclusion holds even in countries with highly selective migration policies |
| Keywords: | Immigration; growth; human capital; generalized methods of moments |
| JEL: | C23 F22 J24 J61 O41 O47 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:13013r&r=mig |