Foreign assistance and migration choices: Disentangling the channels

Mauro Lanati and Rainer Thiele

Economics Letters, 2018, vol. 172, issue C, 148-151

Abstract: At least since the large refugee movements to the EU in 2015, many policymakers see foreign aid as a means to stem migrant inflows. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms through which foreign aid might affect migration decisions. To this end, we run gravity-type regressions for the aid categories proposed by Clemens et al. (2012): (i) short-impact aid that may generate income growth in the short to medium term, and (ii) late-impact aid that affects non-monetary dimensions of well-being such as the quality of public services but may lead to higher incomes only in the long run. We find a strongly negative impact of late-impact aid, which suggests that donors may be able to dampen migrant inflows by focusing on improved public services.

Keywords: Foreign aid; Migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 F35 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:172:y:2018:i:c:p:148-151

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2018.09.002

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