High Skilled Migration and the Exertion of Effort by the Local Population

Gil Epstein, Melanie Ward-Warmedinger and Astrid Kunze

No 3477, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: The design of optimal immigration policy, particularly in the face of the spiraling demand for highly skilled workers, such as IT workers and engineers, is a topical issue in the policy debate as well as the economic literature. In this paper, we present empirical evidence from firm-level data collected in 2000 on the demand in Europe for highly skilled workers in general and abroad and their determinants. Major findings are that the fraction of highly skilled recruited from the international labour market is very small, and it seems that foreign and domestic workers are very similar in terms of formal education, that is subject of specialization, and job characteristics. We suggest an efficiency wage model that can explain why firms recruit foreign workers in small numbers and are willing to pay migrants the same wage as local workers and at the same time are willing to pay for moving costs, for example, that are specific to immigrating workers.

Keywords: Migration; Labour demand; Firm data; Highly skilled workers; Globalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J41 J61 L20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP3477 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: HIGH‐SKILLED MIGRATION AND THE EXERTION OF EFFORT BY THE LOCAL POPULATION (2009)
Working Paper: High Skilled Migration and the Exertion of Effort by the Local Population (2002)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:3477

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP3477

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().