|
on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Elveren, Adem Yavuz; Toksöz, Gülay |
| Abstract: | This study examines the gender dimension of the brain drain in Turkey to argue that gender inequality in sending countries can be a push factor for women. Considering how the political, social and cultural atmosphere damages gender equality in Turkey due to a shift toward a conservative, authoritarian regime over the last decade, the paper uses an online survey to analyze the gender gap in the return intentions of Turkish professionals and students living abroad. The findings clearly reveal a gender gap in return intentions regardless of other main factors such as age, study field/occupation or marital status. The study also highlights the significant correlation between the gender gap in migration decisions and gender inequality in Turkey’s labor market. |
| Keywords: | Brain drain, gender, skilled workers, students, migration |
| JEL: | F22 J16 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:80290&r=mig |
| By: | Martijn Smit |
| Abstract: | Evolutionary economic geography has awoken an interest in the question how regions can attract new human capital. One method is to attract migration firms, who will bring (part of) their existing employees. These people can then attract or generate new jobs (Hoogstra, van Dijk, & Florax, 2005). In this paper, we study the mobility of employees when their firm decides to move: do they stick with their employer or not? And if they do, do they commute or not? Finally, we link the decision to commute longer distances to the availability of a company car. We use microdata on individual firms and employees to test whether employees choose to follow their firm to another region. We control for personal and job characteristics. We find that having a company car is not correlated with the decision to stay with or to leave the current firm, but those who have one are less likely to move house, as long as the employee has a wage in the top quartile, or lives in the urban areas of the Randstad with their stressed housing market. Employees who already experienced long commutes before their employer moved are not influenced by the presence of a company car. Length: |
| JEL: | J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1718&r=mig |
| By: | Buttmann, Vera |
| Abstract: | Housing markets of large cities around the world, particularly in so-called developing and emerging countries, are currently experiencing a clash: On the one hand, large numbers of labour migrants arrive from rural areas and need cheap rental housing. On the other hand, international real estate investment, particularly in the upper market segment, is strong. The resulting mismatch of housing demand and supply increases segregation, marginalises the vulnerable and leads to massive urban development problems. Phnom Penh illustrates this particularly well: Along with Cambodia's rapid globalisation in the last decades, hundreds of thousands of migrants, particularly garment workers, have moved to the capital. Housing for them is insufficient both in terms of supply and quality, though, because Phnom Penh's entrepreneurial mode of governance also attracts many investors, who focus on more profitable and prestigious real estate projects, often linked to speculation. These push land values up and push cheap rental housing further and further outside the city. This study carries out an indepth analysis of the prospects for rural-urban migrant workers on Phnom Penh's investor-driven housing market by firstly outlining both migration and real estate investment trends and by secondly examining the case of garment workers' housing. To complement the scarce literature on the topic, field research and expert interviews have been conducted. From these, an assessment of the status quo, of stakeholders' approaches to it and finally, proposals for action are derived. |
| Keywords: | housing,real estate investment,entrepreneurial city,urbanisation,ruralurban migration,migrant workers,garment industry |
| JEL: | F63 F66 L67 R21 R23 R28 R31 R38 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:912017&r=mig |
| By: | Bailey, Michael; Cao, Ruiqing; Kuchler, Theresa; Ströbel, Johannes; Wong, Arlene |
| Abstract: | We introduce a new measure of social connectedness between U.S. county-pairs, as well as between U.S. counties and foreign countries. Our measure, which we call the 'Social Connectedness Index' (SCI), is based on the number of friendship links on Facebook, the world's largest online social networking service. Within the U.S., social connectedness is strongly decreasing in geographic distance between counties: for the population of the average county, 62.8% of friends live within 100 miles. The populations of counties with more geographically dispersed social networks are generally richer, more educated, and have a higher life expectancy. Region-pairs that are more socially connected have higher trade flows, even after controlling for geographic distance and the similarity of regions along other economic and demographic measures. Higher social connectedness is also associated with more cross-county migration and patent citations. Social connectedness between U.S. counties and foreign countries is correlated with past migration patterns, with social connectedness decaying in the time since the primary migration wave from that country. Trade with foreign countries is also strongly related to social connectedness. These results suggest that the SCI captures an important role of social networks in facilitating both economic and social interactions. Our findings also highlight the potential for the SCI to mitigate the measurement challenges that pervade empirical research on the role of social interactions across the social sciences. |
| Keywords: | Diffusion of Information; homophily; Measurement; migration; Patent Citations; Social Networks; Trade |
| JEL: | D8 F1 J6 L14 O33 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12146&r=mig |
| By: | Anthony Edo |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the dynamics of wage adjustment to an exogenous increase in labor supply by exploiting the sudden and unexpected inflow of repatriates to France created by the independence of Algeria in 1962. I track the impact of this particular supply shift on the average wage of pre-existing native workers across French regions in 1962, 1968 and 1976. I find that regional wages decline between 1962 and 1968, before returning to their pre-shock level 15 years after. While regional wages recovered, this particular supply shock had persistent distributional effects. By increasing the relative supply of high educated workers, the inflow of repatriates contributed to the reduction of wage inequality between high and low educated native workers over the whole period considered (1962-1976). |
| Keywords: | Labor Supply Shock,;Wages;Immigration;Natural Experiment. |
| JEL: | F22 J21 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2017-13&r=mig |
| By: | Andreas Beerli (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Giovanni Peri |
| Abstract: | Between 1999 and 2004 Switzerland fully opened its border region (BR) to cross-border workers (CBW), who are foreign residents commuting to Switzerland for work. In this paper, we exploit the timing of implementation and the fact that CBW commute almost exclusively to municipalities close to the border to estimate the effect of this policy on foreign labor supply and on native labor market outcomes, using a difference-in-difference approach. We find that opening the border to CBW increased their employment within 10 minutes of commuting time from the border by 4 to 5 percentage points. The increased inflow was mainly constituted of highly-educated workers and it was associated with an increase of wages of highly-educated Swiss workers and no significant changes of wages of other workers. We also find weak evidence that employment and hours worked by less educated native workers increased. Native highly-educated workers became more likely to fill top managerial positions after the liberalization and they became more likely to stay in border regions. Occupation upgrading and complementarity with highly-educated natives, particularly strong in highskilled manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services, contribute to explaining these effects of CBW on natives. |
| Keywords: | border region, free labor mobility, policy change, cross-border workers, labor markets |
| JEL: | F22 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:17-431&r=mig |
| By: | Elisa Giannone (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | Poorer US cities were catching up with richer ones at an annual rate of roughly 1.4% between 1940 and 1980. However, wage convergence across US cities went from 1.4% a year between 1940 and 1980 to 0% a year between 1980 and 2010. This paper quantifies the contributions of skill-biased technical change (SBTC) and agglomeration economies to the end of cross-cities wage convergence within the US between 1980 and 2010. I develop and estimate a dynamic spatial equilibrium model that looks at the causes of the decline in spatial wage convergence. The model choice is motivated by novel empirical regularities regarding the evolution of the skill premium and migration patterns over time and across space. The model successfully matches the quantitative features of the decline in US regional wage convergence, as well as other stylized facts on US economic growth. Moreover, the model also reproduces the convergence and the divergence in the skill ratio across US cities and other features on quantities, such as the secular decline in within US migration after 1980. Finally, the counterfactual analysis suggests that SBTC explains the approximately the 80% of the decline of regional convergence between 1980 and 2010 among high skill workers. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:190&r=mig |
| By: | Rafael Dix-Carneiro; Brian K. Kovak |
| Abstract: | We use both longitudinal administrative data and cross-sectional household survey data to study the margins of labor market adjustment following Brazil's early 1990s trade liberalization. We document how workers and regional labor markets adjust to trade-induced changes in local labor demand, examining various adjustment margins, including earnings and wage changes; interregional migration; shifts between tradable and nontradable employment; and shifts between formal employment, informal employment, and non-employment. Our results provide insight into the regional labor market effects of trade, and have important implications for policies that address informal employment and that assist trade-displaced workers. |
| JEL: | F14 F16 J46 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23595&r=mig |
| By: | Riccardo Fiorentini (Department of Economics (University of Verona)); Alina Verashchagina (Department of Economics (University of Verona)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relation between immigration and trade by focusing on Veneto region in Italy. The reference period is 2008-2015, interfering with the economic crisis, thus the results obtained can be time specific. The presence of immigrants in Veneto was constantly on the rise, also during the crisis, although at a lower pace compared to pre-crisis years. The question is which role could this play in ascertaining the stability, if not expansion, of trade relations between the region and the countries of immigrants' origin. The estimates of gravity model suggest a non-linear relationship between the number of immigrants and total exports from (imports to) the host-province to (from) the country of origin, the type of this relation moreover differs by sector of origin of trade. Higher presence of immigrants can potentially induce shifts in the structure of local economy, especially if it is highly dependent on international trade like in the case of Veneto |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Exports, Imports, Gravity model, Dose-response function |
| JEL: | F10 F14 F22 R10 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ver:wpaper:03/2017&r=mig |
| By: | Michael A. Clemens; Jennifer Hunt |
| Abstract: | An influential strand of research has tested for the effects of immigration on natives' wages and employment 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 large difference in the pre- and post-Boatlift racial composition in subsamples of the Current Population Survey extracts. This compositional change is specific to Miami, unrelated to the Boatlift, and arises from selecting small subsamples of workers. We also show that conflicting findings on the labor market effects of other important refugee waves are caused 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 detrimental impacts on workers with less than high school. |
| Keywords: | refugees, immigration, instrumental variables |
| JEL: | J61 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1491&r=mig |
| By: | Kuschminder, Katie (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, and European University Institute); Koser, Khalid (UNU-MERIT, and Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of migration-specific and migration-relevant policies in migrant decision-making factors for onwards migration or stay in Greece and Turkey. In this paper we distinguish migration-specific policies from migration-relevant policies in transit and destination countries, and in each case distinguish favourable policies from adverse policies. We test this categorisation through an original survey of 1,056 migrants in Greece and Turkey from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria collected in 2015. The results indicate that, in transit countries, the policies that most strongly influence migrants' decision-making are adverse migration-specific and migration-relevant policies. By contrast, in destination countries favourable migration-specific policies appear to be more important than migration-relevant policies there in determining the choice of destination. |
| Keywords: | migration policies, transit migration, irregular migration, Greece, Turkey |
| JEL: | D01 F22 F66 O15 |
| Date: | 2017–05–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2017022&r=mig |
| By: | Constant, Amelie F. (Princeton University); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (UNU-MERIT, and Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the migration and labour mobility in the European Union and elaborates on their importance for the existence of the EU. Against all measures of success, the current public debate seems to suggest that the political consensus that migration is beneficial is broken. This comes with a crisis of European institutions in general. Migration and labour mobility have not been at the origin of the perceived cultural shift. The EU in its current form and ambition could perfectly survive or collapse even if it solves its migration challenge. But it will most likely collapse, if it fails to solve the mobility issue by not preserving free internal labour mobility and not establishing a joint external migration policy. |
| Keywords: | labour mobility, migration, European Union, refugees |
| JEL: | D01 D02 D61 F02 F16 F22 F66 |
| Date: | 2017–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2017018&r=mig |
| By: | Kimberly Beaton; Svetlana Cerovic; Misael Galdamez; Metodij Hadzi-Vaskov; Franz Loyola; Zsoka Koczan; Bogdan Lissovolik; Jan Kees Martijn; Yulia Ustyugova; Joyce Wong |
| Abstract: | Outward migration has been an important phenomenon for countries in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC), particularly those in Central America and the Caribbean. This paper examines recent trends in outward migration from and remittances to LAC, as well as their costs and benefits. For the home country, the negative impact from emigration on labor resources and productivity seems to outweigh growth gains from remittances, notably for the Caribbean. However, given emigration, remittance flows play key financing and stabilizing roles in Central America and the Caribbean. They facilitate private consumption smoothing, support financial sector stability and fiscal revenues, and help reduce poverty and inequality, without strong evidence for harmful competitiveness effects through shifts in the real exchange rate. |
| Date: | 2017–06–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:17/144&r=mig |