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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Olena Ivus (Queen's University); Alireza Naghavi (University of Bologna); Larry D. Qiu (University of Hong-Kong) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a North-South trade model with heterogeneous labour and horizontally differentiated products and compares the implications of two policies: Southern intellectual property rights (IPRs) and Northern immigration policy that aims to attract Southern talent as means of preempting imitation. Individuals self-select into becoming entrepreneurs and innovate (imitate) in the North (South). The likelihood of imitation depends on product quality, imitator’s ability, and strength of IPRs. Several interrelated channels of competition are identified. Allowing high-ability migration when IPRs protection in the South is weak shifts imitation to low-quality and innovation to high-quality products. The outcome is in stark contrast to the policy of strengthening IPRs, which limits low-quality imitation and encourages low-quality innovation. High-ability migration also increases the income of lowability entrepreneurs, as well as the average quality of products in the high-ability imitation sector in the South. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual propert yrights; High-skilled migration; Imitation; Innovation; Product quality; Entrepreneurability |
| JEL: | F22 O31 O34 J24 K37 O38 |
| Date: | 2019–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:457&r=all |
| By: | Hager, Anselm; Valasek, Justin |
| Abstract: | Despite numerous studies on the social and political impact of refugees in Europe, we have very little systematic evidence on the impact of refugee settlement on social cohesion in the developing world. Using data gathered in Northern Lebanon, we show that increased salience of the "refugee crisis" decreases natives' trust and prosocial preferences toward refugees, suggesting a negative impact of mass refugee settlement. However, this negative impact is driven exclusively by respondents with no individual exposure to refugees. In fact, despite concerns that refugee settlements may result in local conflict, we find that individual proximity to refugees is positively correlated with trust towards refugees, and that proximity has a positive spillover effect on social capital towards other migrants. This implies that, while the refugee crisis may have had a negative impact on social cohesion, this negative impact is mitigated in areas where natives are in contact with refugees. |
| Keywords: | migration,social capital,experiment,ethnicity |
| JEL: | F22 H41 D74 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:wzbeoc:spii2020301&r=all |
| By: | Gordon B. Dahl; Cristina Felfe; Paul Frijters; Helmut Rainer |
| Abstract: | What happens when immigrant girls are given increased opportunities to integrate into the workplace and society, but their parents value more traditional cultural outcomes? Building on Akerlof and Kranton's identity framework (2000), we construct a simple game-theoretic model which shows how expanding opportunities for immigrant girls can have the unintended consequence of reducing their well-being, since identity-concerned parents will constrain their daughter's choices. The model can explain the otherwise puzzling findings from a reform which granted automatic birthright citizenship to eligible immigrant children born in Germany after January 1, 2000. Using survey data we collected in 57 schools in Germany and comparing those born in the months before versus after the reform, we find that birthright citizenship lowers measures of life satisfaction and self-esteem for immigrant girls. This is especially true for Muslims, where traditional cultural identity is particularly salient. Birthright citizenship results in disillusionment where immigrant Muslim girls believe their chances of achieving their educational goals are lower and the perceived odds of having to forgo a career for family rise. Consistent with the model, immigrant Muslim parents invest less in their daughters' schooling and have a lower probability of speaking German with their daughters if they are born after the reform. We further find that immigrant Muslim girls granted birthright citizenship are less likely to self-identify as German, are more socially isolated, and are less likely to believe foreigners can have a good life in Germany. In contrast, immigrant boys experience, if anything, an improvement in well-being and little effect on other outcomes. Taken together, the findings point towards immigrant girls being pushed by parents to conform to a role within traditional culture, whereas boys are allowed to take advantage of the opportunities that come with citizenship. Alternative models can explain some of the findings in isolation, but are not consistent more generally. |
| JEL: | J15 J16 Z1 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26674&r=all |
| By: | Sule Alan (University of Essex); Ceren Baysan (University of Essex); Mert Gumren (Koc University); Elif Kubilay (University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact of an educational program that aims to build inter-ethnic cohesion in schools by developing perspective-taking ability in children. The program takes place in southeastern Turkey, a high-stakes context in which there has been a massive influx of refugees. We measure outcomes that are fundamental to economic interactions and social cohesion, including peer violence, social exclusion, and prosocial behavior. Using randomized variation in program implementation, we find that the program significantly lowers peer violence and victimization on school grounds. It also reduces social exclusion and ethnic segregation in the classroom, measured by inter-ethnic friendship ties. We find that the program is highly effective in enhancing prosocial behavior: Treated students exhibit significantly higher trust, reciprocity, and altruism toward each other. Our results suggest that well-targeted educational strategies can go a long way in building social capital, even in sociopolitically difficult circumstances. |
| Keywords: | social cohesion, education, refugee integration, social exclusion |
| JEL: | I24 I28 D24 C93 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2020-009&r=all |
| By: | Stark, Oded; Byra, Lukasz; Kosiorowski, Grzegorz |
| Abstract: | We offer an explanation for the inconclusive results of empirical studies into the relationship between the magnitude of the Gini coefficient of income distribution at origin and the intensity of migration. Bearing in mind the substantial literature that identifies relative deprivation as an important determinant of migration behavior, we study the relationship between aggregate or total relative deprivation, TRD, the Gini coefficient, G, and migration. We show that for a given change of incomes, TRD and G can behave differently. We present examples where, in the case of universal increases in incomes, TRD increases while G does not change; G decreases while TRD does not change; and G decreases while TRD increases. We generalize these examples into formal criteria, providing sufficient conditions on the initial and final income vectors under which incongruence between the directions of changes of G and of TRD occur. Our analysis leads us to infer that when the incentive to migrate increases with TRD, then this response can co-exist with no change of G or with a decrease of G. @We offer an explanation for the inconclusive results of empirical studies into the relationship between the magnitude of the Gini coefficient of income distribution at origin and the intensity of migration. Bearing in mind the substantial literature that identifies relative deprivation as an important determinant of migration behavior, we study the relationship between aggregate or total relative deprivation, TRD, the Gini coefficient, G, and migration. We show that for a given change of incomes, TRD and G can behave differently. We present examples where, in the case of universal increases in incomes, TRD increases while G does not change; G decreases while TRD does not change; and G decreases while TRD increases. We generalize these examples into formal criteria, providing sufficient conditions on the initial and final income vectors under which incongruence between the directions of changes of G and of TRD occur. Our analysis leads us to infer that when the incentive to migrate increases with TRD, then this response can co-exist with no change of G or with a decrease of G. |
| Keywords: | The Gini coefficient,Total relative deprivation,The incentive to migrate,Incongruence between measures of inequality |
| JEL: | D31 D63 F22 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuewef:127&r=all |
| By: | Pastore, Francesco; Semerikova, Elena |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to assess the role of migration as an adjustment mechanism device to favor convergence across states and regions of Russia. In contrast to previous studies, we use variations in the population of a region as a proxy of its net migration rate and apply spatial econometric methodology in order to distinguish the effect from the neighbouring regions. We provide descriptive statistical evidence showing that Russia has more/less/the same intense migration flows than the USA and EU. The econometric analysis shows that migration flows are sensitive to both regional income and regional unemployment differentials. Nonetheless, we find that internal migration is sensitive to regional unemployment and income differentials of neighbouring regions. Dependent on the welfare, pre- or after-crisis period, income in neighbouring regions can create out- or in-migration flows. The relatively high degree of internal mobility coupled with the low sensitivity of migration flows to the local unemployment rate of distant regions might explain why migration flows tends not to generate convergence, but rather divergence across Russian regions. |
| Keywords: | Internal and International migration,Adjustment mechanism,spatial econometrics,Russia |
| JEL: | F15 F22 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:445&r=all |
| By: | Constant, Amelie F. |
| Abstract: | This chapter undertook the monumental task of providing a complete outlook about return, repeat, circular and onward migration by bringing together the perspectives of the host and the home country. In this endeavor, it reviewed and evaluated all theories about why people move, when they circulate, where they go, who are the people who migrate, who are the people who return, and how they change the economic and social structures in the home country. In the process, it revealed the new norm of joint decision-making by the family as a unit and underlined the importance of non-economic reasons for return. The chapter further provided a state-of-the-art literature review about empirical evidence regarding the disparate phenomena of return, circular and onward migration. It emphasized commonalities and compared differences in findings, while connecting them to the theories, policies and institutions. Return, repeat, and circular migrants are self-selected and extremely heterogeneous people and cannot conform under one theory or empirical study. Their de facto migration comportment can be understood by several different theories and, in the absence of good data, it can be explained by a variety of studies. The chapter ends with a critical conclusion and hope to inspire new avenues of research on the topic. |
| Keywords: | Return,circular,onward,international labor migration,public policy |
| JEL: | F22 J15 J18 J20 J61 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:446&r=all |
| By: | Dimitri Defrance (Espace-Dev, Université Montpellier, IRD, Université Guyane, Université Réunion, Université Antilles, Université Avignon); Esther Delesalle (IRES/LIDAM, UCLouvain, and IRD, UMR LEDa-DIAL); Flore Gubert (IRD, UMR DIAL, PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine) |
| Abstract: | This paper combines population census data and climate data to estimate the volume of migrations induced by the drought events that have hit Mali since the late 1980s. The results show that the droughts that have unevenly aected the regions of Mali have had the eect of increasing migration from rural to urban areas. This is true for both men and women, regardless of the age group considered. Between 1998 and 2009, droughts translate into an additional net outow of 7,134 male and 6,281 female rural migrants per year. The eect of drought episodes, however, diers according to localities and rural households' capacity to adapt to climatic constraints: it fades in localities characterized by more diversied crops and in those located in the Sudano-Sahelian and Sudano-Guinean zones that receive more rainfall on average. Climate shocks also had an impact on international mobility: over the 2004-2009 period, around 2,000 additional departures per year can be attributed to the dry episodes that hit Mali during the 2000s. We forecast that, under dierent climate scenarios and population growth projection, internal and international mobility induced by droughts events will substantially grow in the next decades. |
| Keywords: | Climate change, Migration, Mali. |
| JEL: | Q54 Q15 F22 O55 |
| Date: | 2020–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt202001&r=all |