Transaction costs and recorded remittances in the post-Soviet economies: Evidence from a new dataset on bilateral flows

Labour migrants' remittances are a rapidly growing phenomenon in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The size and growth of remittances in the countries of the recipients brought the issue under the scrutiny of researchers and policymakers. In this paper we investigate the main factors behind the growing volume of remittances in the post-Soviet space. By applying panel data techniques we found that a reduction in transaction costs and a depreciation of the currency in the host country were the main factors that influenced the growth of recorded remittances. The size of transaction costs remains a significant predictor of the volume of formal remittances, even after correcting for endogeneity using an instrumental variable estimator. The inverse relationship between transaction costs and recorded remittances suggests that migrants switch from informal channels to formal channels to send remittances when costs are low. Thus lower transaction costs may help curb the proportion of informal flows and lead to increased use of remittances in the formal economy.     

Productivity differences and inter-state migration in the U.S.: A multilateral gravity approach

In this paper, we study the quantitative role of productivity differences in explaining migration in presence of multiple destination choices. We construct a dynamic general equilibrium model with multi-region, multi-sector set-up where labor is a mobile input, which adjusts to regional and sectoral productivity shocks, resulting in migration across regions. The proposed model generates a migration network where the flow of migrants between any two regions follows a gravity equation. We calibrate the model to the U.S. data and we find that variation in industrial and regional total factor productivity shocks explains about 63% of the interstate migration in the U.S. Finally, we perform comparative statics to estimate the effects of long-run structural changes on migration. We find that capital intensity of the production process and the demand for services over manufactured goods negatively impact aggregate level of migration whereas asymmetries in trade patterns do not appear to have substantial effects.     

"民工荒"现象的劳动经济学分析

文章首先简述“民工荒”现象，然后运用劳动经济学中有关理论对“民工荒”现象背后的真正原因做了深入分析，最后从三个层面提出了解决这一问题的对策建议。     

Returns to Scale and the Economic Impact of Migration

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the impact of international migration on a regional economy. It is based on the assumption that immigration causes the population of the region to grow, thereby increasing the cost of living for existing residents. In one version of the model, the government responds by increasing wages in the public sector so as to help offset the higher cost of living. The private sector follows suit. In another version of the model, wages are determined by supply and demand. The paper investigates what happens to living standards, unemployment and the location of the native population under different assumptions about returns to scale.     

Does contact improve attitudes towards migrants in China?

Over the past three decades, China has experienced significant internal migration. However, migrants are often socially segregated and discriminated against in their destination cities in China. This paper uses a large representative survey to investigate whether interpersonal contact between urban locals and migrants improves urban locals’ attitudes towards migrants. The novel part of this paper is to examine the effect of different contact experiences on multiple dimensions of attitudes. The results show distinct patterns between the effects of non‐intimate and intimate contact experiences. All the OLS results, IV results and IV results together with Lewbel's ( 2012 ) heteroscedasticity identification approach suggest that non‐intimate contact experience only significantly improves willingness to engage in non‐intimate interactions, and the magnitude of the effect reduces as the intimacy level of the intended interaction increases. On the contrary, intimate contact experience significantly improves willingness to engage in both non‐intimate and intimate interactions.     

出生地规模、个体收入差距和城市规模分化

文章采用中国劳动力动态调查数据,基于个体选择的微观机制,考察了出生地规模对个体收入的时间效应、空间异化效应、代际传递效应和迁移效应;从出生地规模这一独特的视角,解释了收入差距持久性的成因。研究发现:出生地作为个体的初始禀赋对个体未来收入存在显著影响,出生地规模越大,个体的未来收入越高;这一效应伴随个体在出生地的成长时长增强,并依据不同城市的特征产生空间异化效应。另外,出生地规模不仅影响了个体的未来收入,也对个体的迁移行为产生了显著的影响;而个体的迁移选择又进一步引起了城市规模分化。具体而言,出生地城市规模越大的个体迁移概率越大,且出生地城市规模越大的个体越趋向迁移到比出生地规模更大的城市;而迁移个体的迁移次数越多,出生地规模的收入效应越强。基于上述出生地规模对收入的正向促进作用和迁移效应,家庭效用最大化的个体将趋于迁往规模更大的城市,这将引起城市规模分化加剧。文章证实了初始禀赋对个体收入影响的长期性和持续性,并为城市规模和个体收入的相关研究提供了新的视角。     

Migration to the agricultural frontier and wealth accumulation, 1860-1870

I use a new data set of households linked between the 1860 and 1870 censuses to study frontier migration. Households that moved to the frontier to farm were more likely than non-migrants to have been poor, landless, and illiterate, and to have had young children. Also, after controlling for observable differences, migrants had below average abilities to accumulate wealth. These findings suggest fewer opportunities for migrants to accumulate wealth in non-frontier areas and a reason for their migration. Nonetheless, migrants fared well, accumulating wealth at high rates. The gains in wealth of migrants, especially those with long tenure on the frontier, suggest the extraordinary benefits of migration.     

Divergent regional development, factor mobility, and nontraded goods

Using an endogenous growth model with learning-by-doing effects in the production of a traded good, we derive divergent regional-growth paths in a two-region-three-good setting. A nontraded-goods sector using a mobile as well as an immobile factor of production provides the possibility of a steady-state equilibrium with a dispersed distribution of mobile workers. The paper investigates regional specialization, trade, and migration patterns in the steady-state equilibrium as well as in the transition process towards the steady-state. The long-run production and trade patterns of the regions are determined by history-dependent processes.     

Interregional Migration of Human Capital and Unemployment Dynamics: Evidence from Italian Provinces

Since the mid‐1990s interregional migration flows in Italy have dramatically increased, especially from the South to the North. These flows are characterized by a strong component of human capital, involving a large number of workers with secondary and tertiary education. Using longitudinal data for the period 2002–2011 at NUTS‐3 territorial level, we document that long‐distance (i.e., South‐North) net migration of high‐skill workers has increased the unemployment at origin and decreased it at destination, thus deepening North–South unemployment disparities. On the other hand, long‐distance net migration of low‐skill workers has had the opposite effect, by lowering the unemployment at origin and raising it at destination. Further evidence also suggests that the diverging effect of high‐skill migration dominates the converging effect of low‐skill migration. Thus, concerns for an ‘internal brain drain’ from Southern regions look not groundless.     

Virtual Special Issue on Migration

This editorial introduces a virtual special issue of Spatial Economic Analysis compiled to mark the keynote lecture at the 46th Annual Conference of the Regional Science Association International—British and Irish Section in Cornwall by Professor Jacques Poot of the National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis, University of Waikato. Professor Poot's lecture on migration, which is also the theme of this virtual special issue, could not be more topical. Migration is a central issue in public discourse in Europe and the United States, and is setting the agenda for political debate throughout the developed world. The ongoing refugee crisis in Europe, the associated rise in populist, nationalist political movements in Europe and the United States, and the recent vote by the UK to leave the European Union all have migration at their centre.