Optimal Migration: A World Perspective

Jess Benhabib and Boyan Jovanovic ()

No 12871, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We ask what level of migration would maximize world welfare. We find that skill-neutral policies are never optimal. An egalitarian welfare function induces a policy that entails moving mainly unskilled immigrants into the rich countries, whereas a welfare function skewed highly towards the rich countries induces an optimal policy that entails a brain-drain from the poor countries. For intermediate welfare functions that moderately favor the rich however, it is optimal to have no migration at all.

JEL-codes: O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-01
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Published as Jess Benhabib & Boyan Jovanovic, 2012. "Optimal Migration: A World Perspective," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 53(2), pages 321-348, 05.

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