International Emigrant Selection on Occupational Skills

Alexander Patt (), Jens Ruhose (), Simon Wiederhold () and Miguel Flores
Additional contact information
Alexander Patt: Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

No 10837, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We present the first evidence that international emigrant selection on education and earnings materializes through occupational skills. Combining novel data from a representative Mexican task survey with rich individual-level worker data, we find that Mexican migrants to the United States have higher manual skills and lower cognitive skills than non-migrants. Conditional on occupational skills, education and earnings no longer predict migration decisions. Differential labor-market returns to occupational skills explain the observed selection pattern and significantly outperform previously used returns-to-skills measures in predicting migration. Results are persistent over time and hold within narrowly defined regional, sectoral, and occupational labor markets.

Keywords: selection; international migration; skills; occupations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J24 J61 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 71 pages
Date: 2017-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int, nep-lma, nep-mig and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Published - published in: Journal of the European Economic Association, 2021, 19(2), 1249-1298

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Related works:
Journal Article: International Emigrant Selection on Occupational Skills (2021)
Working Paper: International Emigrant Selection on Occupational Skills (2017)
Working Paper: International Emigrant Selection on Occupational Skills (2017)
Working Paper: International Emigrant Selection on Occupational Skills (2017)
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