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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | MARTINEZ Isabel |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes mobility responses to a large, regressive local income tax cut benefiting the top 1% in the Swiss Canton of Obwalden in 2006. DiD estimations comparing Obwalden with neighboring cantons confirm that the reform was successful in increasing the share of rich taxpayers in the canton (+20-30%). Using individual tax data, I find a large elasticity of the inflow of rich taxpayers with respect to the average net-of-tax rate ranging from 3.2 to 6.5. DiD estimates of cantonal revenue, however, show that the tax cuts did not lead to an increase in cantonal tax revenue per capita. This is in line with a theoretical analysis suggesting Obwalden was not on the wrong side of the Laffer curve before the reform. |
| Keywords: | Mobility; Personal income tax; Tax competition; Local taxes; Regressive income tax |
| JEL: | H31 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2017-08&r=mig |
| By: | Andritzky, Jochen; Aretz, Bodo; Christofzik, Désirée I.; Schmidt, Christoph M. |
| Abstract: | In 2015 and 2016, more than one million refugees arrived in Germany. While granting these migrants access to the country is an expression of humanitarian responsibility, their subsequent integration into the labor market is primarily a challenge for economic policy. For a wide range of outcomes, from unemployment to the stability of social security systems, successful labour market integration holds the key to reducing long run costs from the refugee influx. This paper outlines the implications for the provision of education and training, as well as for labour market and housing policy. They comprise a sustained effort to enhance the qualifications and skills of recognised asylum applicants, reforms geared to incentivising residential construction, and measures to improve labour market flexibility and (self-)employment opportunities. |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:svrwwp:092016&r=mig |
| By: | Sebastian Till Braun (University of St Andrews); Nadja Dwenger (University of Hohenheim) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how the local environment in receiving counties affected the economic, social, and political integration of the eight million expellees who arrived in West Germany after World War II. We first document that integration outcomes differed dramatically across West German counties. We then show that more industrialized counties and counties with low expellee inflows were much more successful in integrating expellees than agrarian counties and counties with high inflows. Religious differences between native West Germans and expellees had no effect on labor market outcomes, but reduced inter-marriage rates and increased the local support for anti-expellee parties. |
| Keywords: | Expellees; Forced migration; Immigration; Integration; Post-War Germany |
| JEL: | J15 J61 N34 C36 |
| Date: | 2017–05–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:san:wpecon:1711&r=mig |
| By: | Marina Murat |
| Abstract: | This paper tests the effects of Aid from 14 OECD donor economies on bilateral asylum seeker inflows from 113 developing countries during 1993-2013. Results are that Aid affects asylum seeker inflows nonlinearly in the pc income of the origin country, in a ‘U’ shaped fashion, with a turning point at 9,150 pcGDP, PPP2011$. Aid has also cross-donor negative spillovers and regional effects. Overall, deterring effects concern especially Sub Saharan countries. Moreover, Aid does not influence bilateral voluntary migration. Making Aid transfers conditional on improvements in political and economic institutions in recipient countries can strengthen their effects on asylum seeker inflows. |
| Keywords: | foreign Aid, asylum seekers and refugees, Aid policy |
| JEL: | F35 F22 I38 J15 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:recent:130&r=mig |
| By: | Clemens, Michael A. (Center for Global Development); Hunt, Jennifer (Rutgers University) |
| Abstract: | An influential strand of research has tested for the effects of immigration on natives' wages and em-ployment using exogenous refugee supply shocks as natural experiments. Several studies have reached conflicting conclusions about the effects of noted refugee waves such as the Mariel Boatlift in Miami and post-Soviet refugees to Israel. We show that conflicting findings on the effects of the Mariel Boatlift can be explained by a sudden change in the race composition of the Current Population Survey extracts in 1980, specific to Miami but unrelated to the Boatlift. We also show that conflicting findings on the labor-market effects of other important refugee waves can be produced by spurious correlation between the instrument and the endogenous variable introduced by applying a common divisor to both. As a whole, the evidence from refugee waves reinforces the existing consensus that the impact of immigration on average native-born workers is small, and fails to substantiate claims of large detri-mental impacts on workers with less than high school. |
| Keywords: | immigration, wages, unemployment, refugee, asylum, crisis, violence, conflict, labor, integration, mariel boatlift, Miami, Israel, France, Algeria |
| JEL: | J61 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10806&r=mig |
| By: | Murard, Elie (IZA) |
| Abstract: | I examine the effect of immigrant inflows in Europe on natives' individual attitudes towards redistribu-tion and immigration policy over the last decade. Unlike previous studies, I analyze the evolution over time of these two types of attitudes in a joint empirical framework. Using migration data at the NUTS regional level from the European Labor Force Survey and individual attitudes data from the European Social Survey, I exploit variation over time and across regions in the size and composition of immigrant inflows. I address the endogeneity of immigrant inflows by using a shift share instrument and within-country specification. I find evidence coherent with a theoretical model in which individual attitudes depend essentially on how immigration is perceived to affect wages and net welfare benefits. Specifi-cally, I find that, when immigrants tend to compete with natives for jobs (due to having similar skills or occupations), natives prefer policies that support welfare and put restrictions on migration. When mi-grants are mostly low-skilled (high-skilled), European citizens typically favor lower (higher) levels of redistribution. |
| Keywords: | immigration, welfare state, political economy |
| JEL: | F22 F1 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10805&r=mig |
| By: | Mariana Balan (“Athenaeum†University of Bucharest, Romania and Institute for Economic Forecasting- NIER, Romanian Academy) |
| Abstract: | The globalization of modern world stimulated marked increases in the migration to locations both near and far supported by several factors either of economic, social or environmental nature or by political instability and the development of some sophisticated, modern transport systems and networks that facilitated easier, cheaper and quicker movement of individuals than in any other moment in mankind’s history. Thus, the number of international migrants reached 244 million in 2015 on increase by 41% as compared with the year 2000. Characteristic for the migration phenomenon by the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the third millennium is the change in the structure, dimension and typology of migration flows, as the workforce demand regarding the labor force market in the countries of destination is addressed especially to high-skilled immigrants. Even though for most of the times, the volume, diversity, geographic expansion, as well as the general complexity of international migration are considered as on increase as effects of the globalization processes, still this idea remains for its largest part unverified. The paper presents a brief analysis of the main globalization characteristics of globalization and its impact on the volume, structure, and trends of the migration flows. |
| Keywords: | globalization, migration, urban immigration, economic and social effects |
| JEL: | F22 J10 J21 J24 J61 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:wpaper:3&r=mig |
| By: | Chort, Isabelle; de la Rupelle, Maëlys |
| Abstract: | This paper uses state-level migration ow data between Mexico and the U.S. from 1999 to 2011 to investigate the migration response to climate shocks and the mitigating impact of an agricultural cash-transfer program (PROCAMPO) and a disaster fund (Fonden). Our results suggest that lower than average precipitations increase undocumented migration, especially from the most agricultural states. Fonden amounts are found to mitigate the effect of climate shocks on migration by lowering the undocumented migration response to precipitation anomalies. Similarly an increase in the state-level share of PROCAMPO funds to non-irrigated plots in the ejido sector decreases migration after a shock. |
| Keywords: | International migration,Climate change,Public policies,Weather variability,Natural disasters,Mexico-U.S. migration |
| JEL: | F22 Q54 Q18 J61 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:78&r=mig |
| By: | Forte, Giuseppe (King's College London); Portes, Jonathan (King's College London) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the determinants of long-term international migration to the UK; we explore the extent to which migration is driven by macroeconomic variables (GDP per capita, unemployment rate) as well as law and policy (the existence of "free movement" rights for EEA nationals). We find a very large impact from free movement within the EEA. We also find that macroeconomic variables – UK GDP growth and GDP at origin – are significant drivers of migration flows; evidence for the impact of the unemployment rate in countries of origin, or of the exchange rate, however, is weak. We conclude that, while future migration flows will be driven by a number of factors, macroeconomic and otherwise, Brexit and the end of free movement will result in a large fall in immigration from EEA countries to the UK. |
| Keywords: | Brexit, EU, immigration, UK |
| JEL: | F22 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10802&r=mig |
| By: | Jonathan Wadsworth |
| Abstract: | Immigration to the UK has grown a lot over the last 20 years and a significant fraction of this growth has been from other EU countries, especially after 2004 and the accession of the eight East European countries ('A8'). There are now around 9 million individuals (and 7.4 million adults of working age) living in the UK who were born abroad. The number of immigrants from EU countries living in the UK has tripled from 0.9 million to 3.3 million over this period. In the 2016 referendum debate, a major argument of the Leave campaign was that Brexit would allow more control over the flow of immigrants to the UK from the EU. Many people continue to be concerned that high levels of immigration have hurt their jobs, wages and quality of life. Higher immigration has increased overall national income (more workers will generate more GDP) and benefited the immigrants who have come to the UK since, by and large, they are better off than in their country of origin. But has it been harmful to people born in the UK? |
| Keywords: | immigration, EU countries, economy, Brexit |
| Date: | 2017–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepeap:039&r=mig |
| By: | Kuroki, Masanori |
| Abstract: | This paper presents empirical evidence that racial diversity and immigrant population at the local level tend to be associated with lower life satisfaction for Whites by matching individual data with the county-level population data during the period 2005-2010. The magnitudes I find suggest that a ten percentage-point increase in the share of the non-White population (approximately one-half of a standard deviation) is associated with 0.006 and 0.007 points reduction in life satisfaction on a four-point scale for White men and White women, respectively. For White men, this effect appears to be driven by the percentage of the population that is Black. I also find that a ten percentage-point increase in the percentage of the immigrant population (approximately two standard deviations) is associated with 0.009 and 0.021 points reduction in life satisfaction for White men and White women, respectively. The percentage of the non-White population seems to reduce older Whites’ life satisfaction more than that of younger Whites. Though the scale of the findings relating to the impact of local racial compositions and immigrant population is relatively modest, the findings may pose a challenge in the coming years as the percentage of the population that is non-White rises in the United States. |
| Keywords: | life satisfaction,happiness,well-being,racial,immigration |
| JEL: | J15 I31 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:76&r=mig |