Do Non-Economic Quality of Life Factors Drive Immigration?

Joshua Lewer (), Gail Pacheco and Stephanie Rossouw

No 4385, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper contributes to the immigration literature by generating two unique non-economic quality of life (QOL) indices and testing their role on recent migration patterns. Applying the generated quality of life indices in conjunction with other independent welfare measures to an extended gravity model of immigration for 16 OECD destination countries from 1991 to 2000 suggests an insignificant role for QOL in the immigration process. The panel results suggest that other economic variables such as the stock of immigrants from the source country already living in the OECD destination country, population size, relative incomes, and geographic factors all significantly drive the flow of immigration for the sample.

Keywords: immigration; quality of life; gravity model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C51 D63 F22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2009-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Published - published in: Social Indicators Research, 2013, 110 (1), 1-15

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Journal Article: Do Non-Economic Quality of Life Factors Drive Immigration? (2013)
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