Return and dynamics: the path of labor migration when workers differ in their skills and information is asymmetric

"An implementation of the theory of labor migration under asymmetric information shows that return migration arises from the reinstatement of informational symmetry which induces low-skill workers, who are no longer pooled with high-skill workers, to return. When workers in an occupation constitute more than two skill levels, say four (without loss of generality), the following patterns emerge: Migration is sequential, that is, it proceeds in waves. Each wave breaks into workers who return and workers who stay; within waves the returning migrants are the low-skill workers. The average skill level of migrants is rising in the order of their wave."     

Equilibrium urban unemployment in developing countries: is migration the culprit?

"This paper challenges the prediction of Todaro's model of rural-to-urban migration that an 'increase in urban employment increases urban unemployed.' It is shown that if the urban demand for labor is isoelastic or inelastic, creation of urban jobs causes urban unemployment to decline and urban-to-rural migration to take place. Moveover, urban job creation always reduces the rate of urban unemployment. The paper then remodels the urban job search process and derives the result that equilibrium urban unemployment would not vanish even if the urban-rural wage gap were eliminated." The geographical focus is on developing countries.     

Research and Development Activity and Expected Returns in the United Kingdom

Fama and French (1992) show that size and book-to-price dominateCAPM beta and other variables such as the price-earnings ratioand dividend yield in explaining the cross-section of US stockreturns. Comparable evidence for the UK points to a book-to-priceeffect, but not a size effect (Chan and Chui, 1996; Strong andXu, 1997). In this paper, our first contribution is to showthat a measure of research and development (RD) helps explaincross-sectional variation in UK stock returns. Our cross-sectionalresults on the association between stock returns and RD areconsistent with recent US evidence reported by Lev and Sougiannis(1996, 1999) and Chan, Lakonishok and Sougiannis (2001).Famaand French (1993, 1995, 1996) also show that a three-factormodel captures a high proportion of the time series variationin portfolio returns, again for the US. Our second contributionis to show, for the UK, that a modification to the three-factormodel to take account of RD activity can significantly enhancethe explanatory power of the three-factor model. We show that,as a practical matter, estimated risk premia based on the modifiedthree-factor model can differ considerably from risk premiaestimated using the CAPM or the three-factor model. In particular,risk premia for industries in which few firms undertake RD activitiestend to be over-estimated.     

On the empirical relationship between market value and residual income in the U.K.

This paper examines the empirical cross-sectional relationship between residual income and market value for U.K. firms. It does so because of recent claims that RI is a better measure for use by firms in internal planning and control activities than, say earnings. If such is the case then, presumably, we would expect that RI has a stronger association with market value than, for example, earnings. We conclude that the relationship between RI and market value is by no means perfect. Nonetheless, RI has a stronger association with market value, in conjunction with RD expenditures and opening and closing book value, than does earnings in conjunction with RD expenditures and closing book value. As a consequence, the capital charge element of RI does appear to add explanatory power to equations involving merely earnings, RD expenditures and closing book value. Our view, therefore, would be that the evidence presented in the paper provides some support for advocates of the use of RI for planning and control.     

An evolutionary edge of knowing less (or: On the ‘curse’ of global information)

Consider a population of farmers who live around a lake. Each farmer engages in trade with his two adjacent neighbors. The trade is governed by a prisoner’s dilemma ‘rule of engagement.’ A farmer’s payoff is the sum of the payoffs from the two prisoner’s dilemma games played with his two neighbors. When a farmer dies, his son takes over. The son decides whether to cooperate or defect by considering the actions taken and the payoffs received by the most prosperous members of the group comprising his own father and a set of his father’s neighbors. The size of this set, which can vary, is termed the ‘span of information.’ It is shown that a larger span of information can be detrimental to the stable coexistence of cooperation and defection, and that in well-defined circumstances, a large span of information leads to an end of cooperation, whereas a small span does not. Conditions are outlined under which, when individuals’ optimization is based on the assessment of less information, the social outcome is better than when optimization is based on an assessment of, and a corresponding response to, more information.     

Real Options, (Dis)Investment Decision-Making and Accounting Measures of Performance

This paper suggests that a residual income-type measure of performance can be designed which supports optimal investment and disinvestment decision-making in a real options framework involving the options to wait before investing and to abandon. The measure has a number of advantages and disadvantages. Nonetheless, the balance of advantage versus disadvantage for the proposed measure must be set against the inadequacies of other competing measures of performance and associated organisational designs. Even if the measure of performance suggested is not regarded as practically useful, it has another general advantage – it can be used as a benchmark against which to evaluate other performance measures with regard to their support of optimal investment and disinvestment decision-making in a real options framework.     

A Theory of Migration as a Response to Relative Deprivation

We model migration as a response to relative deprivation. We present a specific configuration of incomes in which the process of migration in response to relative deprivation reaches a steady state. However, for the general configuration of incomes we show that it is impossible to prove the existence of a steady state. We study the social welfare implications of the two cases and show that if individuals are left to pursue their betterment, the resulting state falls short of the best social outcome. We present several implications of the model including federalism and the demand for secession.     

Migration under Asymmetric Information and Human Capital Formation

We study the migration of skilled workers, along with the skill acquisition incentives created by the prospect of migration. We trace out the dynamics of migration as foreign employers accumulate experience in deciphering the skill levels of individual migrants. It is found that migration by the relatively highly skilled is followed by return-migration from both tails of the migrant skill distribution; that the possibility of migration induces skill acquisition at home; that until the probability of discovery reaches its steady state equilibrium, migration consists of a sequence of moves characterized by a rising average skill level; and that migration of skilled workers can entail a home-country welfare gain.     

Fiskalpolitik nach der Krise

Die ?ffentlichen Haushalte sind durch die Wirtschafts- und Finanzkrise stark in Anspruch genommen. Au?erdem wurde, noch bevor der Ausgang der Krise absehbar war, in Deutschland die Schuldenbremse beschlossen. Bei den Autoren besteht Einigkeit darüber, dass die Nachkrisenzeit einer sensiblen Fiskalpolitik bedarf. über deren Ausgestaltung gehen die Auffassungen jedoch auseinander.