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on Economics of Human Migration |
| By: | Katrine Jakobsen; Henrik Kleven; Jonas Kolsrud; Camille Landais; Mathilde Muñoz |
| Abstract: | Using administrative data on wealth, firm ownership structure, and migration in Sweden and Denmark, we document international migration patterns among the very wealthy, their impact on the economy, and how they respond to wealth taxation. We show that more than 20% of taxpayers liable to pay wealth tax are business-owners, and that the employment, investments, and value-added of these businesses are negatively affected when their owner migrates out of the country. Exploiting three large reforms, we then isolate the causal effect of wealth taxation on the international location choices of the wealthy. We find significant effects on out-migration flows from increases in the effective wealth tax. But, we also document that the overall level of these migration flows is remarkably small, with annual net-migration rates below .01%. As a result, we find that the aggregate economic effects of tax-induced migration are modest in Scandinavia: a one percentage point increase in the average wealth tax rate on the top 2% decreases the stock of wealthy taxpayers by at most 2% in the long run, and lead to a reduction of at most .03% in aggregate employment and at most .1% in aggregate value- added. Hence, our results suggest that trickle-down effects of tax-induced migration by the wealthy do exist, but that they are quantitatively small. |
| JEL: | D31 E21 H20 H31 L26 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32153&r=mig |
| By: | Richa Richa; Ilan Noy; Subir Sen |
| Abstract: | Extreme weather induced migration is a growing concern for low and middle income countries due to the increased variability in the weather and the increase in the number of extreme weather disasters associated with climate change. The objective of this paper is to examine the inter-linkages between weather, disasters, and migration, in India. To examine the bidirectional flow of migrants across Indian states, we estimate gravity models with Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML), in line with previous studies’ methodology. We find that agriculture-dependent states and states with low level of human development are more likely to face out-migration driven by weather variations and disasters. Internal migration is seasonal, temporary and often short-distance in nature. We find statistical evidence that repeated exposure of vulnerable populations to extreme weather and disasters may ultimately lead to more permanent migration. This raises urgent questions concerning the efficacy of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation policies at the sub-national level. |
| Keywords: | climate, disasters, bilateral migration, NELM, gravity model |
| JEL: | O15 Q54 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10919&r=mig |
| By: | Taryn Dinkelman; Grace Kumchulesi; Martine Mariotti |
| Abstract: | Between 1967 and 1974, a bilateral treaty increased circular labor migration from Malawi to South Africa by 200%, bringing over 53 million USD in earnings into origin communities. A deadly migrant worker plane crash in 1974 ended these flows and led to migrant repatriation. We study how this shock affected local labor markets. In regions receiving more migrant capital after the crash, workers, particularly women, shifted from farming into non-farm work over thirty years. Investments in non-farm physical and human capital contribute to these sectoral changes. This natural experiment shows that temporary capital inflows can permanently reshape rural labor markets. |
| JEL: | J21 J24 O15 O55 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32144&r=mig |
| By: | Akira IGARASHI (Faculty of Human Sciences, Osaka University); Charles CRABTREE (Department of Government, Dartmouth College); Yoshikuni ONO (Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University) |
| Abstract: | Many studies argue that intergroup relations between immigrants and natives are influenced by perceptions of cultural distance. They claim that natives tend to favor immigrants who are fluent in the host society’s language, which is operationalized by researchers as a sign of cultural assimilation and identification with the host society. This work assumes that language proficiency is a reasonable manifest indicator of the latent trait of national identification, even though these two concepts, although potentially related, are theoretically distinct. Our study aims to disentangle the relationship between immigrants’ language proficiency and their national identification in the context of the United States. We conducted pre-registered vignette and conjoint experiments to achieve this goal with national samples of 3, 325 and 4, 201, respectively. The results from the vignette experiment indicate that natives exhibit a preference for immigrants who not only possess fluent English skills but also independently strongly identify with the United States. Notably, the effect size for national identification is significantly larger than for language proficiency. These findings are further supported by the results from the conjoint experiment, which incorporates a broader range of immigrant attributes. Our results highlight the interrelated yet distinct nature of national identification and language proficiency. The broader takeaway is that relying solely on language proficiency as a measure of national identification can yield biased results and lead to misleading conclusions. Our findings have implications for the literatures on immigration and for experiments that use language proficiency as an experimental treatment. |
| Keywords: | immigrants; national identification; language proficiency; survey experiments |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wap:wpaper:2312&r=mig |
| By: | Tran, Nhan |
| Abstract: | Fear of immigration enforcement may deter undocumented parents from seeking government benefits for their US citizen children. This paper examines the effect of providing legal status to parents through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on health insurance coverage among US-born children. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find that DACA eligibility among likely undocumented mothers increases Medicaid enrollment among their US-born children by 4 to 5 percentage points. I do not find evidence to support a similar effect among US-born children with likely undocumented fathers. |
| Keywords: | DACA; undocumented immigrants; US-born children; health insurance; regression discontinuity design |
| JEL: | I13 I18 J18 |
| Date: | 2024–01–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:120173&r=mig |
| By: | Matthieu Bunel; Dominique Meurs; Élisabeth Tovar |
| Abstract: | This article uses a 15-year panel data set from a large French industrial firm to investigate the role of intra-firm job-driven residential mobility on the gender pay gap of executives. We find that job-driven residential mobility is highly profitable for both male and female workers due to a generous mobility bonus policy, but that it does not affect their careers. We also find that female executives are less likely than males to experience job-driven residential mobility, and that it brings higher gains to male relative to female executives. However, these differences between men and women linked to the mobility allowance make limited contribution to the total gender pay gap, which is almost entirely due to other bonuses linked to the positions held. |
| Keywords: | insider econometrics, personnel economics, gender pay gap, job mobility, residential mobility |
| JEL: | J16 J31 M12 R23 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2024-6&r=mig |
| By: | Diego Aycinena; Francisco B. Galarza Arellano; Javier Torres |
| Abstract: | Sudden massive migration influxes have been a new driving force of migration increases in recent decades. These types of migration flows present potential challenges to social and economic integration. In this paper we study socioeconomic integration using controlled laboratory experiments in a context of massive inflow of Venezuelan migrants in Peru, where the share of Venezuelan immigrants in the country’s population increased from almost zero in 2016 to 2.5 percent in 2019. Using adult (non-student) native-born Peruvians and Venezuelan immigrants as subjects, we conducted homogeneous (same nationality) and mixed (different nationality) experimental sessions in Lima, to examine interactions that require cooperation, coordination, trust, and reciprocity to achieve a Pareto efficient outcome. We find no evidence of in-group versus out-group (based on nationality) difference in those measures of pro-social behavior. Within this context, we also find no differentials in normative or empirical expectations in behavior of non-nationals relative to those of nationals, and only small to moderate implicit bias. This lack of differential treatment is suggestive of short-run economic integration between immigrants and natives, in a challenging context of massive influxes of migrants. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Cooperation, Coordination, Trust, Economic Interactions, Lab Experiments |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apc:wpaper:199&r=mig |
| By: | Gaetano Basso (Bank of Italy); Salvatore Lo Bello (Bank of Italy); Francesca Subioli (Roma 3 University) |
| Abstract: | We study how local labor demand shocks affect internal migration using the universe of labor market flows for Italy. First, we document two novel facts: i) large and systematic differences between gross and net job and internal migration flows arise both across space and over time; ii) each gross flow is an important driver of the net growth rates. We estimate the causal impact of different-sign labor demand shocks on internal migration flows using as instrumental variable plausibly exogenous large mass hire and layoffs events. Our estimates reveal that job creation has a strong effect on the in-migration rate, whereas job destruction has a much milder effect on the out-migration rate. Crucially, we document that the large responsiveness of in-migration does not work through an increase in the number of relocating workers, but rather through changes in their chosen destination alternatives. We also find that the effects of job creation on in-migration flows have a much larger geographical reach than those of job destruction, as out-migration flows are locally concentrated. |
| Keywords: | labor demand, turnover, layoff, geographic labor mobility |
| JEL: | J23 J61 R23 J63 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1430_23&r=mig |