Who Migrates and Why?

Cristian Bartolucci, Mathis Wagner () and Claudia Villosio

No 333, Carlo Alberto Notebooks from Collegio Carlo Alberto

Abstract: We use twenty years of Italian administrative panel data, a uniquely rich source of information on internal migration experiences, to identify the role of unobserved worker characteristics in the selection and returns to migrants. We propose and implement a novel iterative estimation method for a switching regression model with the same worker-specific source of unobserved heterogeneity ("ability") present in the selection and both outcome equations. We estimate that the returns to ability are lower in the North than in the South of Italy and accordingly migrants tend to be drawn from the lower-end of the ability distribution. Around half the gains to migration are due to higher wages, and the other half due to greater labor market attachment. Differential returns to observable characteristics are far less important. Return migration reinforces the original negative selection of migrants, consistent with migrants facing considerable uncertainty about their income in northern Italy.

JEL-codes: J61 O15 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cca:wpaper:333

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