nep-mig New Economics Papers
on Economics of Human Migration
Issue of 2017‒08‒06
eight papers chosen by
Yuji Tamura
La Trobe University

  1. Social Security Agreements (SSAs) in practice: Evidence from India's SSAs wih countries in Europe. By Tiwari, Atul Kumar; Ghei, Dhananjay; Goel, Prerna
  2. English Skills and the Health Insurance Coverage of Immigrants By Marcus Dillender
  3. Child Migration and the Health Status of Parents Left Behind By Fengming CHEN
  4. Immigrants and Savers: A Rich New Database on the Irish in 1850s New York By Simone Wegge; Tyler Anbinder; Cormac Ó Gráda
  5. Table Stakes: Education Quality and Immigrants’ Success in the Canadian Labour Market By Qing Li
  6. Can Immigration Cause Local Industrialization? Evidence from Germany’s Post-War Population Transfer By Michael Peters
  7. Migrants and cities research report on recruitment, employment, and working conditions of domestic workers in China By Minghui, Liu.
  8. Natural hazard information and migration across cities:Evidence from the anticipated Nankai Trough earthquake By Michio NAOI; Keiichi SATO; Yozo TANAKA; Hiroaki MATSUURA; Shingo NAGAMATSU

  1. By: Tiwari, Atul Kumar (Principal Resident Commissioner of Karnataka); Ghei, Dhananjay (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy); Goel, Prerna (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy)
    Abstract: India has signed 18 Social Security Agreements from 2009 till 2016. Social Security Agreements (SSAs) are bilateral treaties, which allow export of social security benefits, totalisation of insurance periods, and prevent dual contribution of social security in the country of origin and destination for inter-corporate transfers. Thus, the SSAs help in protecting the interest of workers, and in increasing circular migration of highly skilled labour. Since SSAs are of recent origin in the context of India, a systematic study on Indian SSAs has not yet been undertaken. A key policy question in this context is promotion of circular migration of highly skilled labour willing to migrate to other countries. In this paper, we summarise the existing framework of SSAs in India, understand the demographics of people utilising SSAs (using a novel dataset) and discuss some areas of concern. The key policy issues in this field pertain to detachment benefits, totalization procedure and ensuring greater coverage under these agreements.
    Date: 2017–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:npf:wpaper:17/203&r=mig
  2. By: Marcus Dillender (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research)
    Keywords: language skills, immigrants, health insurance, Medicaid
    JEL: J15 I13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:md17-2&r=mig
  3. By: Fengming CHEN
    Abstract: I investigate the causal effect of child migration the health status their parents left behind. I mainly focus on the respondents who are more than 50 years old and have only two children to simplify the situations of child migration. Using 2010 wave of China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), I employ propensity score matching method to correct the problem of self-selection and evaluate the causal effect of having migrant children on the health status of the elderly left behind. Results show that, in the case of one child migrating for work, child migration has no impact on the health status of their parents. As the substitutive relationship exists among child siblings, the child staying at home would provide more support to their parents and cancel out the impact of child migration. The incentive of free riding for migrant children is very strong, which reduces the benefit of remittances for the elderly.
    Date: 2017–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:toh:tergaa:369&r=mig
  4. By: Simone Wegge; Tyler Anbinder; Cormac Ó Gráda
    Abstract: We describe a new dataset created from the first 18,000 savings accounts opened (from 1850 to 1858) at the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank in New York City. The bank was founded by Irish Americans and most of its depositors in its first decade of operations were recent Irish immigrants. The data offer a unique window on both savings behavior by the poor and not-so-poor in antebellum New York and on how emigrants who came primarily from rural parts of Ireland adapted to urban life. They also contain much that is new on the regional origins of mid-nineteenth century Irish immigrants and on their settlement patterns in New York.
    Keywords: Savings behavior; Irish immigration; Social mobility; New York
    JEL: N D14 F22
    Date: 2017–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201707&r=mig
  5. By: Qing Li
    Keywords: Education, Skills and Labour Market
    JEL: J15 I26
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdh:ebrief:262&r=mig
  6. By: Michael Peters (Yale University)
    Abstract: Can increases in the size of the local population spur economic development? This paper uses a particular historical episode to study this question empirically. After the Second World War, between 1945 and 1948, about 12m Ethnic Germans were expelled from regions in Middle and Eastern Europe and transferred to Western Germany. At the time, this inflow amounted to almost 20% of the Western German population. Importantly, there are vast cross-sectional differences in the extent to which refugees were allocated to individual counties and various features of the allocation mechanism make it possible to construct exogenous variation in these local supply shocks. I study the effect of such shocks on Germany's regional economic development between 1950 and 1970. I find that refugee-inflows are positively correlated with local income per capita and manufacturing employment. These patterns are consistent with theories of agglomeration and endogenous technological change but harder to reconcile in a neoclassical framework.
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:352&r=mig
  7. By: Minghui, Liu.
    Abstract: This study on domestic workers in China was conducted under the EU–China Dialogue on Migration and Mobility Support Project, a collaboration between the International Organization for Migration and the International Labour Organization, funded by the European Union. It examines the current situation of domestic workers in China with a focus on the case study of Beijing, including domestic workers’ recruitment, employment, working conditions, social security, accessibility to legal protection, and complaint mechanisms. The study identifies the gaps in the national policies and practices concerning domestic workers in China in light of international standards and good practices. In addition, the study provides relevant policy recommendations to narrow the gaps with regard to international instruments and to promote the legitimate rights of domestic workers in China. The study is not only an illustration of the socioeconomic impact of migration on development – and urbanization in particular. It is an expression of hope that domestic work may transition from the informal to the formal economy and become a fully-fledged urban labour market in its own right in China’s near future.
    Keywords: descriptor 1, descriptor 2, descriptor 3, descriptor 4
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:994959192902676&r=mig
  8. By: Michio NAOI; Keiichi SATO; Yozo TANAKA; Hiroaki MATSUURA; Shingo NAGAMATSU
    Abstract: The Nankai Trough and its underlying fault are the major source of the future devastating earthquake, the Nankai Trough earthquake. The Central Disaster Management Council, which is a governmental committee for policy planning on disaster management, released the latest report on the predicted damage from the Nankai Trough earthquake in 2012. The new report estimated the maximum possible seismic movements and tsunami height for each municipality, which were updated from the previous ones released in 2003. We examine the causal impact of the municipality-level predicted seismic movements and tsunami heights on the net migration across municipalities. The Difference-in-Differences (DID) estimates suggest that the predicted tsunami height is significantly negatively associated with the municipality’s net migration rate. Further empirical analysis shows that the predicted tsunami height has a prolonged negative impact on the in-migration into the municipality, whereas it has only a short-term positive impact on the out-migration. Our empirical findings suggest that, after the dissemination of tsunami predictions, people tend to choose less risky locations, rather than engaging in other disaster-prevention activities. In addition, we found that the negative impact of tsunami heights on the in-migration is weaker in municipalities where public facilities that can serve as disaster relief or evacuation center are concentrated in the densely inhabited district.
    Keywords: Earthquake, Tsunami, Net migration JEL Classification: Q54, Q58, R23
    Date: 2017–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esj:esridp:335&r=mig

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