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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Pedro, Gomis-Porqueras; Cathy, Zhang |
| Abstract: | We develop an open economy model of a currency union with frictional goods markets and costly migration to study optimal monetary and fiscal policy for the union. Households finance consump- tion with a common currency and can migrate across regions given regional differences in goods market characteristics and microstructure. Equilibrium is generically inefficient due to regional spillovers from migration. While monetary policy alone cannot correct this distortion, fiscal policy can help by taxing or subsidizing at the regional level. When households of only one region can migrate, optimal policy entails a deviation from the Friedman rule and a production subsidy (tax) if there is underinvestment (overinvestment) in migration. Optimal policy when households from both region can migrate is the Friedman rule and zero taxes in both regions. |
| Keywords: | currency unions, costly migration, search frictions, optimal monetary and fiscal policy |
| JEL: | D8 E4 |
| Date: | 2018–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:83754&r=mig |
| By: | Ostrovsky, Yuri; Picot, Garnett |
| Abstract: | There is only a small body of international literature and little Canadian evidence related to exit and survival patterns of immigrant-owned businesses. This paper addresses this gap by answering two questions. First, do exit and survival patterns (durations) of firm ownership differ between immigrants and individuals born in Canada? Second, what characteristics are associated with lower (or higher) exit rates from business ownership and longer ownership spells among immigrants? The analysis is limited to ownership of private incorporated firms. |
| Keywords: | Business ownership, Business performance and ownership, Employment and unemployment, Ethnic diversity and immigration, Labour, Labour market and income |
| Date: | 2018–01–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2018401e&r=mig |
| By: | Martin Kahanec |
| Abstract: | The economic literature starting with Borjas (2001) suggests that immigrants are more flexible than natives in responding to changing sectoral, occupational, and spatial shortages in the labor market. In this paper, we study the relative responsiveness to labor shortages by immigrants from various origins, skills and tenure in the country vis-à- vis the natives, and how it varied over the business cycle during the Great Recession. We show that immigrants in general have responded to changing labor shortages across EU member states, occupations and sectors more fluidly than natives. This effect is especially significant for low-skilled immigrants from the new member states or with the medium number of years since immigration, as well as with high-skilled immigrants with relatively few (1-5) or many (11+) years since migration. The relative responsiveness of some immigrant groups declined during the crisis years (those from Europe outside the EU or with eleven or more years since migration), whereas other groups of immigrants became particularly fluid during the Great Recession, such as those from new member states. Our results suggest immigrants may play an important role in labor adjustment during times of asymmetric economic shocks, and support the case for well-designed immigration policy and free movement of workers within the EU. Paper provides new insights into the functioning of the European Single Market and the roles various immigrant groups play for its stabilization through labor adjustment during times of uneven economic development across sectors, occupations, and countries. |
| Keywords: | immigrant worker, labor supply, skilled migration, labor shortage, wage regression, Great Recession |
| JEL: | J24 J61 J68 |
| Date: | 2018–01–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cel:dpaper:48&r=mig |
| By: | Soheil Shayegh (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)); Greg P. Casey (Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University) |
| Abstract: | We examine the effect of climate change on fertility rates and human capital accumulation in developing countries, focusing on the instrumental role of migration. In particular, we investigate how climate-induced migration in developing countries will affect those who do not migrate. Holding all else constant, climate shocks raise the return to acquiring skills, because skilled individuals compared to unskilled ones have greater opportunity to migrate after the shock. In response to this change in incentives, parents choose to invest more in education and have less children, a process known as the ‘quantity-quality’ trade-off. These effects partially offset the damages of climate change, even for those who do not migrate. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Climate Change, Fertility, Population, Wage, Quantity-quality Tradeoff |
| JEL: | F22 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2017.55&r=mig |
| By: | Sinem H. Ayhan (University of Münster); Kseniia Gatskova; Hartmut Lehmann |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence on the impacts of non-cognitive skills and attitudes towards risk on the decision to migrate from rural to urban areas. Our analysis is based on a unique four-wave panel of Ukrainian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for the period between 2003 and 2012. Adopting the Five Factor Model of personality structure, and using it in the evaluation of noncognitive skills, our results suggest that such personality traits as openness to new experience and the willingness to take risks increase the probability of migration. On the other hand, the non-cognitive skills conscientiousness and extraversion are found to be negatively associated with the propensity to migrate. The effects are statistically and quantitatively significant, and mainly driven by movements from rural areas into cities. Our results are robust to several sensitivity checks, including tests for reverse causality. |
| Keywords: | migration, non-cognitive skills, Big Five, risk attitudes |
| JEL: | J61 D03 D81 R23 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ost:wpaper:369&r=mig |
| By: | Yiwen Chen (CREA, Université du Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether the decision of migrant parents on children’s migration affect their school performance. Empirical evidence based on the 2009 wave of the Rural-Urban Migration Survey in China (RUMiC) data suggests that migrant children outperform left-behind children, especially for Chinese test scores. Further analysis interacting children’s migration status with their age shows that, in terms of school performance, younger children having migrated with parents to the city have advantage over their leftbehind counterparts in rural hometown, but this gap disappears with the age of children. Among children in junior high school, school performance of left-behind children are better than that of migrant children. |
| Keywords: | Chinese internal migrant workers; left-behind children; migrant children; school performance |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:18-02&r=mig |
| By: | Docquier, Frédéric; Tansel, Aysit; Turati, Riccardo |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically investigates whether emigrants from MENA countries self-select on cultural traits such as religiosity and gender-egalitarian attitudes. To do so, we use Gallup World Poll data on individual opinions and beliefs, migration aspirations, short-run migration plans, and preferred destination choices. We find that individuals who intend to emigrate to OECD, high-income countries exhibit significantly lower levels of religiosity than the rest of the population. They also share more gender-egalitarian views, although the effect only holds among the young (aged 15 to 30), among single women, and in countries with a Sunni minority. For countries mostly affected by Arab Spring, since 2011 the degree of cultural selection has decreased. Nevertheless, the aggregate effects of cultural selection should not be overestimated. Overall, self-selection along cultural traits has limited (albeit non negligible) effects on the average characteristics of the population left behind, and on the cultural distance between natives and immigrants in the OECD countries. |
| Keywords: | International migration, self-selection, cultural traits, gender-egalitarian attitudes, religiosity, MENA region. |
| JEL: | F22 J61 O15 Z10 |
| Date: | 2017–11–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:82778&r=mig |
| By: | Michael Wyrwich (FSU Jena) |
| Abstract: | Migration restrictions are a hotly debated topic in the current refugee crisis in Europe. This paper investigates the long-term effect of a restrictive migration policy on regional development. The analysis is based on the large-scale expulsion of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe after World War II (WWII). Expellees were not allowed to resettle in the French occupation zone in the first years after the War while there was no such legislation in the other occupation zones (U.S.; U.K; Soviet Union). The temporary migration barrier had long-lasting consequences. In a nutshell, results of a Difference-in-Difference (DiD) analysis show that growth of population has been significantly lower in the long run, if a region was part of the French occupation zone. Even 60 years after the removal of the barrier the degree of agglomeration is still significantly lower in these areas. The paper discusses implications for the current refugee crisis. |
| Keywords: | Migration barrier, population shock, refugee migration, long-term regional development |
| JEL: | J11 J61 N34 R11 R23 |
| Date: | 2018–01–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2018-002&r=mig |