nep-mig New Economics Papers
on Economics of Human Migration
Issue of 2023‒01‒30
seven papers chosen by
Yuji Tamura
La Trobe University

  1. A Historical Note on the Assimilation Rates of Foreign-Born Women in the U.S. By Duleep, Harriet; Dowhan, Dan; Liu, Xingfei
  2. Ex Ante Evaluation of Migration Subsidy: Evidence from Japan By KONDO Keisuke
  3. Cultural Roots of Entrepreneurship By Kleinhempel, Johannes; Klasing, Mariko; Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd
  4. Ability composition in the class and the school performance of immigrant students By Elena Meschi; Caterina Pavese
  5. Loss of Peers and Individual Worker Performance: Evidence from H-1B Visa Denials By Prithwiraj Choudhury; Kirk Doran; Astrid Marinoni; Chungeun Yoon
  6. The Evolution of Labor Market Disparities between Hispanic and non-Hispanic Men: 1970-2019 By Kospentaris, Ioannis; Stratton, Leslie S.
  7. Changes in International Immigration and Internal Native Mobility after Covid-19 in the US By Giovanni Peri; Reem Zaiour

  1. By: Duleep, Harriet; Dowhan, Dan; Liu, Xingfei
    Abstract: Using historical, longitudinal data on individuals, we track the earnings of immigrant and U.S.-born women. Following individuals, instead of synthetic cohorts, avoids biases in earnings-growth estimates caused by compositional changes in the cohorts that are followed. The historical data contradict key predictions of the Family Investment Hypothesis, shed light on its genesis, and inform its further testing. Challenging the perception that the quality of U.S. immigrants fell after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, immigrant women, as previously found for immigrant men, have high earnings growth.
    Keywords: Immigrant earning growth, human capital investment, skill transferability, immigrant quality, sample restrictions, family investment model
    JEL: J15 J16 J24 J31 C1
    Date: 2023
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1221&r=mig
  2. By: KONDO Keisuke
    Abstract: This study proposes a simple framework for the ex ante evaluation of migration subsidy. Recently, the Japanese government initiated a migration subsidy program to promote urban-to-rural migration for regional revitalization under the economy with a monopolar concentration in Tokyo. The ex ante evaluation framework proposed in this study formulates the payback period of interregional migration as investment behavior. In the model, households compare the sum of the expected benefits available each year after migration with the lump-sum costs of migration, which are estimated with structural estimation using the interregional migration flow data. The migration subsidy leads to an incentive for interregional migration by reducing the payback period. This study finds that households incur different migration costs at each stage of life, implying that a uniformly determined migration subsidy may have different policy effects. Counterfactual simulations provide scientific insight into the potential impact of the migration subsidy program, helping policymakers determine the optimal amount under the budget constraint.
    Date: 2022–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:polidp:22031&r=mig
  3. By: Kleinhempel, Johannes; Klasing, Mariko; Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd
    Abstract: Does national culture influence entrepreneurship? Given that entrepreneurship and the economic, formal institutional, and cultural characteristics of nations are deeply intertwined and co-vary, it is difficult to isolate the effect of culture on entrepreneurship. In this study, we examine the self-employment choices of second-generation immigrants who were born, educated, and currently live in one country, but were raised by parents stemming from another country. We argue that entrepreneurship is influenced by durable, portable, and intergenerationally transmitted cultural imprints such that second-generation immigrants are more likely to become entrepreneurs if their parents originate from countries characterized by a strong entrepreneurial culture. Our multilevel analysis of two independent samples –65, 323 second-generation immigrants of 52 different ancestries who were born, raised, and live in the United States and 4, 165 second-generation immigrants of 31 ancestries in Europe– shows that entrepreneurial culture is positively associated with the likelihood that individuals are entrepreneurs. Our results are robust to alternative non-cultural explanations, such as differences in resource holdings, labor market discrimination, and direct parent-child linkages. Overall, our study highlights the durability, portability, and intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurial culture as well as the profound impact of national culture on entrepreneurship.
    Keywords: Entrepreneurship, National culture, Cross-Cultural Studies
    JEL: A13 J24 J61 L26 M13 M16 O57 Z10 Z13
    Date: 2022–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:115942&r=mig
  4. By: Elena Meschi; Caterina Pavese
    Abstract: Using longitudinal data from the Italian National Institute for the Evaluation of the Education System (INVALSI), this paper investigates whether the ability of classmates affects the educational attainment of immigrant students. We focus not only on the average quality of peers in the class, but we further investigate which part of the ability distribution of peers drives the effect, by assessing the role played by the extreme tails of the ability distribution. Our empirical strategy addresses students’ endogenous sorting into classes by exploiting the within-student across-subjects variation in achievements and the simultaneity problem by using predetermined measures of peers’ ability. We show that peers’ ability matters. While native students are mostly influenced by the average quality of their peers, immigrant children are detrimentally affected by the fraction of very low achievers in the classroom. Our findings provide valuable guidance to policymakers concerning the allocation of students to classes in order to foster immigrant students’ integration and learning.
    Keywords: Peer effects, Immigrant students, Education.
    JEL: J15 I21
    Date: 2023–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mib:wpaper:508&r=mig
  5. By: Prithwiraj Choudhury; Kirk Doran; Astrid Marinoni; Chungeun Yoon
    Abstract: We study how restrictive immigration policies and the unexpected loss of peers affect the performance of skilled migrants, exploiting the unexpected increased denials of H-1B visa extensions in the United States beginning in 2017. We find that employees who lost peers of the same ethnic background experience a substantial decrease in individual performance. To resolve the endogeneity surrounding visa denial decisions, we build an instrumental variable that exploits the fixed duration of the visas. Our mechanism tests suggest that ethnic ties boost individual performance through preferential channels of knowledge and information spillovers.
    JEL: J24 J61 L25
    Date: 2022
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10152&r=mig
  6. By: Kospentaris, Ioannis; Stratton, Leslie S.
    Abstract: We describe how ethnic disparities in the labor market between prime aged Hispanic and non-Hispanic white men have evolved over the last 50 years. Using data from the March CPS, the Census, and the ACS, we examine several employment and earning outcomes. Hispanics have experienced sizable gains to employment: from a negative 2% prior to 1990 to a positive 4% after 2010 compared to non-Hispanics. In terms of earnings, Hispanics face a substantial negative disparity between 20% and 30% with some improvement after 2000. Most of the employment gain is driven by those with less than a high school degree, while the earnings disparity increases with education. Comparing Hispanic immigrants with natives reveals much of the employment and earnings gains are attributable to Hispanic immigrants, particularly immigrants not fluent in English.
    Keywords: Hispanics, ethnicity, disparities, earnings, employment, education, immigration
    JEL: J15 J21 J31 J71
    Date: 2023
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1220&r=mig
  7. By: Giovanni Peri; Reem Zaiour
    Abstract: From the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic to late 2021, international immigration flows to the US decreased significantly. We document the timing and the characteristics of these significant changes in flows, their evolution until late 2022 and their geographic and sector distribution. We consider, in a similar way, changes in internal native mobility in the US, before and after Covid-19. We then connect cross-state native mobility to foreign immigration, the emergence of remote-work options, and changes in labor demand, before and after Covid. In spite of the large changes in labor markets and international migration, we do not measure any significant changes in native internal mobility. Then, using a panel regression and a shift-share IV, we find that the post-Covid drop in immigration and differential increase in remote-work options across sectors and states were not associated with changes in natives' cross-state mobility. We discuss possible implications of the decline in immigration and low native mobility on unfilled jobs in local labor markets.
    JEL: J61
    Date: 2022–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30811&r=mig

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