Worker Mobility in a Global Labor Market: Evidence from the United Arab Emirates

Suresh Naidu, Yaw Nyarko and Shing-Yi Wang

No 20388, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In 2011, a reform in the United Arab Emirates allowed any employer to renew a migrant's visa upon contract expiration without written permission from the initial employer. We find that the reform increased incumbent migrants' earnings and firm retention of these workers. This occurs despite an increase in employer transitions, and is driven by a fall in country exits. While the outcomes of workers already in the United Arab Emirates improved, our analysis suggests that the reform decreased demand for new migrant workers and lowered their earnings. These results are consistent with a model in which the reform reduces the monopsony power of firms.

JEL-codes: J42 J6 O15 O53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-dem, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-mig
Note: DEV LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published as Monopsony Power in Migrant Labor Markets: Evidence from the United Arab Emirates Suresh Naidu, Yaw Nyarko, and Shing-Yi Wang Journal of Political Economy 2016 124:6, 1735-1792

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20388.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:nbr:nberwo:20388

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20388

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().