Migration, Trade, Capital and Development: Substitutes, Complements and Policies

Gustav Ranis ()
Additional contact information
Gustav Ranis: Economic Growth Center, Yale University

Working Papers from Economic Growth Center, Yale University

Abstract: Migration of the unskilled clearly benefits the origin country, mainly due to the flow of remittances but also if the departure of some raises the ability of others to migrate. This depends on whether trade is a complement or a substitute for migration. The impact of such flows on the destination country is more ambiguous, although most research indicates that wages and employment are not likely to be seriously affected. Migration of the skilled is ambiguous with respect to the origin country since the impact of brain drain on local development must be weighed against the signaling effect for additional education plus the contribution of remittances. With respect to the destination country, the inflow of skilled labor is generally considered an unambiguous plus as it contributes to the enhancement of productivity. The paper concludes with policy recommendations aimed at seizing the opportunities arising from the fact that international migration remains the most constrained element of globalization.

Keywords: Migration; Trade; Globalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O11 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2007-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-int
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.econ.yale.edu/growth_pdf/cdp950.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egc:wpaper:950

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Economic Growth Center, Yale University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Benjamin King ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).