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A Revision of the Self-selection of Migrants Using Returning Migrants' Earnings

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  • Aitor Lacuesta

Abstract

This paper examines the self-selection of recent Mexican migrants who reside in the United States. Unlike previous studies, I use the distribution of wages in Mexico of those migrants who returned home after being abroad for some time, given age and education. Considering wages of returning migrants as opposed to wages of non-migrants, as in CHIQUIAR and HANSON [2005], and applying them to the characteristics of emigrants still residing in the United States, I take into account the selection of migrants in observed characteristics and the selection in terms of unobserved ability affecting their productivity. To test whether returning migrants' wages contain any useful information, I follow two steps. First, I bring to the data some testable implications of BORJAS and BRATSBERG's [1996] model. The model shows that, regardless of the reason for returning, the distribution of characteristics of returning migrants is in between the distribution of non-returning migrants and that of non-migrants. Second, I show that returning migrants' wages reflect their pre-emigration productivity and that they are not affected by possible human-capital gains derived from the decision to emigrate. Taking all this evidence into account, I use returning migrants' wages in Mexico upon return to estimate the wage in Mexico of migrants who are still in the United States with the same observed characteristics. I show that considering this information does not change the empirical result of middle selection of emigrants in the origin country obtained in CHIQUIAR and HANSON [2005]. If anything, unobserved abilities increase the average wage of the counterfactual distribution and might decrease its dispersion

Suggested Citation

  • Aitor Lacuesta, 2010. "A Revision of the Self-selection of Migrants Using Returning Migrants' Earnings," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 97-98, pages 235-259.
    • Handle: RePEc:adr:anecst:y:2010:i:97-98:p:235-259
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    Cited by:

    1. Joseph-Simon Görlach, 2023. "Borrowing Constraints and the Dynamics of Return and Repeat Migration," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(1), pages 205-243.
    2. Christian Dustmann & Joseph-Simon Görlach, 2016. "The Economics of Temporary Migrations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(1), pages 98-136, March.
    3. Nelly Elmallakh & Jackline Wahba, 2022. "Return migrants and the wage premium: does the legal status of migrants matter?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1631-1685, October.
    4. Ngoc Thi Minh Tran & Michael P. Cameron & Jacques Poot, 2017. "Local Institutional Quality and Return Migration: Evidence from Vietnam," Working Papers in Economics 17/10, University of Waikato.
    5. Raymundo Campos-Vazquez & Jaime Lara, 2012. "Self-selection patterns among return migrants: Mexico 1990-2010," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-18, December.
    6. El-Mallakh, Nelly & Wahba, Jackline, 2021. "Upward or downward: Occupational mobility and return migration," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    7. World Bank, 2020. "Towards Safer and More Productive Migration for South Asia," World Bank Publications - Reports 33559, The World Bank Group.
    8. Fernández-Huertas Moraga, Jesús, 2013. "Understanding different migrant selection patterns in rural and urban Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 182-201.
    9. Jackline Wahba, 2015. "Selection, selection, selection: the impact of return migration," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 28(3), pages 535-563, July.
    10. Mihaela Misheva, 2021. "Return Migration and Institutional Change: The Case of Bulgaria," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 187-202.
    11. Biavaschi, Costanza, 2013. "Fifty Years of Compositional Changes in U.S. Out-Migration, 1908-1957," IZA Discussion Papers 7258, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Biavaschi, Costanza & Elsner, Benjamin, 2013. "Let's Be Selective about Migrant Self-Selection," IZA Discussion Papers 7865, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Biavaschi, Costanza, 2016. "Recovering the counterfactual wage distribution with selective return migration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 59-80.
    14. Sandra Orozco-Aleman & Heriberto Gonzalez-Lozano, 2021. "Return Migration and Self-Employment: Evidence from Mexican Migrants," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 148-183, June.
    15. Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga, 2014. "Immigrant Selection over the Business Cycle: The Spanish Boom and the Great Recession," Working Papers 2014-05, FEDEA.

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