The impact of immigration on international trade: a meta‐analysis

Since the early 1990s many studies have been conducted on the impact of international migration on international trade, predominantly from the host country perspective. Because most studies have adopted broadly the same specification, namely a log‐linear gravity model of export and import flows augmented with the logarithm of the stock of immigrants from specific source countries as an additional explanatory variable, the resulting elasticities are broadly comparable and yield a set of estimates that is well suited to meta‐analysis. We therefore compile and analyze in this paper the distribution of immigration elasticities of imports and exports across 48 studies that yielded 300 estimates. The results confirm that immigration boosts trade, but its impact is lower on trade in homogeneous goods. An increase in the number of immigrants by 10 percent increases the volume of trade by about 1‐2 percent The migrant elasticity of imports is on average similar to that of exports. The estimates are affected by the choice of some covariates, the nature of the data (cross‐section or panel) and the estimation technique. Elasticities vary between countries in ways that cannot be explained by study characteristics; host country differences in immigration policies do apparently matter for the trade impact. The trade‐enhancing impact of migration appears to be greater for migration between countries of different levels of development than between developed countries

The impact of immigration on international trade: a meta-analysis

Since the early 1990s many empirical studies have been conducted on the impact of international migration on international trade, predominantly from the host country perspective. Because most studies have adopted broadly the same specification, namely a log-linear gravity model of export and import flows augmented with the logarithm of the stock of immigrants from specific source countries as an additional explanatory variable, the resulting elasticities are broadly comparable and yield a set of estimates that is well suited to meta-analysis. We therefore compile and analyze in this paper the distribution of immigration elasticities of imports and exports across 48 studies that yielded 300 observations. The results show that immigration complements rather than substitutes for trade flows between host and origin countries. Correcting for heterogeneity and publication bias, an increase in the number of immigrants by 10 percent may be expected to increase the volume of trade on average by about 1.5 percent. However, the impact is lower for trade in homogeneous goods. Over time, the growing stock of immigrants decreases the elasticities. The estimates are affected by the choice of some covariates, the nature of the data (cross-section or panel) and the estimation technique. Elasticities vary between countries in ways that cannot be fully explained by study characteristics; trade restrictions and immigration policies matter for the impact of immigration on trade. The migrant elasticity of imports is larger than that of exports in about half the countries considered, but the publication bias and heterogeneity-corrected elasticity is slightly larger for exports than for imports.international trade, imports, exports, immigration, gravity model, meta-analysis

Immigrants' 'Ability' and Welfare as a Function of Cultural Diversity: Effect of Cultural Capital at Individual and Local Level

This paper presents an operationalization of a mixed BourdieuMincer-type model that seeks to find evidence for individual and local cultural capital effects on human capital 'ability'. We aim to compare these effects for native workers and immigrants (as well as between immigrants themselves) in a locality. The main objective of the paper is twofold: 1) to examine how ethnic background affects immigrants' schooling results; and 2) to explore the link between the wage differential of immigrant young workers entering the labour market in the context of a locally varying cultural milieu. Our study utilises the 20072009 data set for higher professional education (termed HBO in Dutch) graduates from Maastricht University. We use a two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimation method to analyse empirically a system of two equations. In the first Bourdieu-type equation, individual cultural capital, together with school type/quality, explains the individual's schooling achievement. Next, this 'schooling achievement' is employed as an explanatory variable in the second Mincer-type equation, which examines wage differential effects. Our Mincer-type equation is next augmented with a control for the local cultural milieu. We find evidence of ethnic segregation with regard to the quality of educational institution to which immigrants have access, which naturally explains part of the wage differential effect. Moreover, we find that local cultural capital determines the size of the wage gap

The Impact of Immigration on International Trade: A Meta-Analysis

Since the early 1990s many empirical studies have been conducted on the impact of international migration on international trade, predominantly from the host country perspective. Because most studies have adopted broadly the same specification, namely a log-linear gravity model of export and import flows augmented with the logarithm of the stock of immigrants from specific source countries as an additional explanatory variable, the resulting elasticities are broadly comparable and yield a set of estimates that is well suited to meta-analysis. We therefore compile and analyze in this paper the distribution of immigration elasticities of imports and exports across 48 studies that yielded 300 observations. The results show that immigration complements rather than substitutes for trade flows between host and origin countries. Correcting for heterogeneity and publication bias, an increase in the number of immigrants by 10 percent may be expected to increase the volume of trade on average by about 1.5 percent. However, the impact is lower for trade in homogeneous goods. Over time, the growing stock of immigrants decreases the elasticities. The estimates are affected by the choice of some covariates, the nature of the data (cross-section or panel) and the estimation technique. Elasticities vary between countries in ways that cannot be fully explained by study characteristics; trade restrictions and immigration policies matter for the impact of immigration on trade. The migrant elasticity of imports is larger than that of exports in about half the countries considered, but the publication bias and heterogeneity-corrected elasticity is slightly larger for exports than for imports.international trade, imports, exports, immigration, gravity model, meta-analysis

International migration: a global complex network

Migration has become a prominent research theme in geography and regional science and it has been approached from various methodological angles. Nonetheless, a common missing element in most migration studies is the lack of awareness of the overall network topology, which characterizes migration flows. Although gravity models focus on spatial interaction—in this case migration—between pairs of origins and destinations, they do not provide insights into the topology of a migration network. We employ network analysis to address such systemic research questions, in particular: how centralized or dispersed are migration flows and how does this structure evolve over time? And, how is migration activity clustered between specific countries, and if it is clustered, do such patterns change over time? Going a step further than exploratory network analysis, in this paper we estimate international migration models for OECD countries based on a dual approach: gravity models estimated using conventional econometric approaches such as panel data regressions and network-based regression techniques such as multivariate regression quadratic assignment procedures. The empirical results reveal not only the determinants of international migration among OECD countries, but also the value of blending network analysis with more conventional analytic methods

A Brief Overview of International Migration Motives and Impacts, with Specific Reference to FDI

International migration has become one of the most debated topics in many developed and developing countries. Host countries are concerned about the socioeconomic consequences of international migration, while sending countries—from a developing country’s perspective—are concerned about the brain drain and loss of their younger population. This paper presents a concise literature review on existing theories of international migration, and long-run effects of international migration on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The empirical studies reviewed in this paper indicate a positive and statistically significant relationship between international migration and FDI

Migration and Foreign Direct Investment: Education Matters

The rapid growth in the foreign-born population in many high and middle-income countries in recent decades has prompted much research on the socio-economic determinants and impacts of immigration. This paper investigates the relationship between the stock of foreign population by nationality living in the UK and the bilateral volume of foreign direct investment (FDI), both inward FDI into the UK and outward FDI from the UK. This study contributes to the literature on the above-mentioned association between migration and FDI, by using the UK annual data from 2001 to 2007 for 22 countries on the inward volume of FDI and for 27 countries on the outward volume of FDI. Our study finds a significant and positive relationship between migration and outward FDI. This result also holds, if we correct for endogeneity by using an instrumental variable approach. If we then include the education level of migrants living in the UK, our results indicate that the more educ ated migrants from a certain country are, the stronger positive effect they have on FDI in both directions (inward and outward).foreign direct investment, immigration, gravity model, instrumental variable

Special issue on international migration: Editorial introduction

Editorial: this special issue provides a range of perspectives on econometric modeling of causes and consequences of international migration. Although the volume of global migration has dampened somewhat in recent years due to the global financial crisis, the likely further intensifying economic interaction between the countries of the world and the increasing geographic mobility of people suggests that international migration will take an even more prominent place in global socioeconomic transformation in the future. We may expect therefore a healthy growth in research activity on this topic by regional scientists

Wage gaps between native and migrant graduates of higher education institutions in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands the share of immigrants in the total population has steadily increased during recent decades. The present paper takes a look at wage differences between natives and migrants who are equally educated. This reduces potential skills biases in our analysis of wages. We apply a Mincer equation in estimating the wage differences between natives and migrants. We analyse only young graduates; the conventional human capital factor cannot explain the differences in monthly gross wages. Therefore, we have to look further into “otherness” factors, such as parents’ roots, to find an alternative explanation. Our empirical results show that acquiring Dutch human capital, such as Dutch-specific skills, language, and even integration in the long-term for first-generation migrants, and for a group of second-generation migrants with a non-OECD background, do not overcome wage differences in the Dutch labor market. Furthermore, age structure also plays a role in the payment of different wages in the labor market due to an age discrimination effect: immigrants who invest in their education at later age earn lower wages