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Skilled Worker Migration and Trade: Inequality and Welfare

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  • Spiros Bougheas
  • Douglas R. Nelson

Abstract

We develop a two-sector, two-country model where trade is driven by technological differences. Each country is populated by large number of heterogeneous workers distinguished by their level of skills. Given that one country has a technological advantage in the skilled intensive good when we allow for both trade and migration skilled workers migrate to that country. We analyze the consequences of this migration for both inequality and welfare for the source and the host country.
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  • Spiros Bougheas & Douglas R. Nelson, 2012. "Skilled Worker Migration and Trade: Inequality and Welfare," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 197-215, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:35:y:2012:i:2:p:197-215
    DOI: j.1467-9701.2011.01428.x
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    Cited by:

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    2. Emiliano Magrini & Pierluigi Montalbano & Silvia Nenci & Luca Salvatici, 2017. "Agricultural (Dis)Incentives and Food Security: Is There a Link?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 99(4), pages 847-871.
    3. Biavaschi, Costanza & Burzyński, Michał & Elsner, Benjamin & Machado, Joël, 2020. "Taking the skill bias out of global migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    4. Hatzigeorgiou, Andreas & Karpaty, Patrik & Kneller, Richard & Lodefalk, Magnus, 2016. "Immigrant Employment and the Contract Enforcement Costs of Offshoring," Working Papers 2016:7, Örebro University, School of Business, revised 01 Feb 2022.
    5. Martyn Andrews & Thorsten Schank & Richard Upward, 2017. "Do foreign workers reduce trade barriers? Microeconomic evidence," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(9), pages 1750-1774, September.
    6. Udo Kreickemeier & Jens Wrona, 2017. "Two-Way Migration between Similar Countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 182-206, January.
    7. Magrini, Emiliano & Montalbano, Pierluigi & Nenci, Silvia & Salvatici, Luca, 2014. "Agricultural trade distortions during recent international price spikes: what implications for food security?," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182726, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    8. Tomohara, Akinori, 2019. "Migrant and business network effects on intellectual property trade: Evidence from Japan," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 131-139.
    9. Gao, Cuixia & Tao, Simin & He, Yuyang & Su, Bin & Sun, Mei & Mensah, Isaac Adjei, 2021. "Effect of population migration on spatial carbon emission transfers in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    10. Bougheas, Spiros & Nelson, Doug, 2013. "On the political economy of high skilled migration and international trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 206-224.
    11. TOMOHARA Akinori, 2017. "Do Migrant and Business Networks Promote International Royalty Receipts?," Discussion papers 17006, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    12. Egger, Peter H. & Ehrlich, Maximilian v. & Nelson, Douglas R., 2020. "The trade effects of skilled versus unskilled migration," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 448-464.
    13. Egger, Peter H. & Erhardt, Katharina & Lassmann, Andrea, 2019. "Immigration and firms’ integration in international production networks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 1-34.
    14. Magnus Lodefalk, 2016. "Temporary expats for exports: micro-level evidence," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 152(4), pages 733-772, November.
    15. Nenci, Silvia & Vurchio, Davide, 2023. "Modeling country-sectoral spillovers in generalized propensity score matching: An empirical test on trade data," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    16. Agbahey, Johanes & Siddig, Khalid & Grethe, Harald, 2021. "Economy-wide effects of cross-border labor mobility: The case of Palestinian employment in Israel," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 964-981.
    17. Giorgia Giovannetti & Mauro Lonati, 2014. "The impact of product quality on the pro-trade elasticity of immigrants," Working Papers - Economics wp2014_11.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    18. Hatzigeorgiou, Andreas & Lodefalk, Magnus, 2015. "The Role of Foreign Networks for Firm Export of Services," Working Papers 2015:6, Örebro University, School of Business.

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    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration

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