The Role of Income and Immigration Policies in Attracting International Migrants

Francesc Ortega and Giovanni Peri

No 6655, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper makes two contributions to the literature on the determinants of international migration flows. First, we compile a new dataset on annual bilateral migration flows covering 15 OECD destination countries and 120 sending countries for the period 1980-2006. We also collect data on time-varying immigration policies that regulate the entry of immigrants for our destination countries over this period. Second, we extend the empirical model of migration choice across multiple destinations developed by Grogger and Hanson (2011) by allowing for unobserved individual heterogeneity between migrants and non-migrants. Our estimates show that international migration flows are highly responsive to income per capita at destination. This elasticity is twice as high for within-EU migration, reflecting the higher degree of labor mobility within the European Union. We also find that tightening of laws regulating immigrant entry reduce rapidly and significantly their flow.

Keywords: labor movements; international migration; immigration policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E25 F22 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2012-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-eec, nep-eur, nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published - published as 'The effect of income and immigration policies on international migration' in: Migration Studies, 2013, 1 (1), 47-74.

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Working Paper: The Role of Income and Immigration Policies in Attracting International Migrants (2012)
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