Economic Preferences and the Self-selection of Immigrants

Crystal Zhan and Sumit Deole

No 1156, GLO Discussion Paper Series from Global Labor Organization (GLO)

Abstract: Classical theories hypothesize individual economic preferences, including preferences toward risk, time, and trust, as determinants for migration intention. In the paper, we combine data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, European Social Survey, and World Values Survey to investigate how immigrants to Germany are self-selected from the origin population based on their preferences. We find a higher migration propensity among individuals who are more altruistic, patient, and trusting, conditional on age, gender, education, and a series of origin country's economic and political factors. However, individuals are positively selected on risk appetite in low-risk countries but adversely selected in high-risk countries. The degree of selectivity regarding preferences is also heterogeneous across demographics and origin-country characteristics.

Keywords: self-selection; economic preferences; refugees; reasons for migration; origin country (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J15 J6 O15 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-int, nep-ltv, nep-mig and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:glodps:1156

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