Temporary and Permanent Migrant Selection: Theory and Evidence of Ability-Search Cost Dynamics

Joyce Chen, Katrina Kosec and Valerie Mueller

No 9639, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The migrant selection literature concentrates primarily on spatial patterns. This paper illustrates the implications of migration duration for patterns of selection by integrating two workhorses of the labor literature, a search model and a Roy model. Theory and empirics show temporary migrants are intermediately selected on education, with weaker selection on cognitive ability. Longer migration episodes lead to stronger positive selection on both education and ability, as its associated jobs involve finer employee-employer matching and offer greater returns to experience. Networks are more valuable for permanent migration, where search costs are higher. Labor market frictions explain observed complex network-skill interactions.

Keywords: migration; search costs; networks; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2016-01
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 (3)

Published - published in: Review of Development Economics, 2019, 23 (4), 1477-1519

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https://docs.iza.org/dp9639.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Temporary and permanent migrant selection: Theory and evidence of ability‐search cost dynamics (2019)
Working Paper: Temporary and permanent migrant selection: Theory and evidence of ability-search cost dynamics (2015)
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