IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ssa/lemwps/2014-08.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Human-Mobility Networks, Country Income, and Labor Productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Giorgio Fagiolo
  • Gianluca Santoni

Abstract

This paper asks whether the level of integration of world countries in the international network of temporary human mobility can explain differences in their per-capita income and labor productivity. We disentangle the role played by global country centrality in the network from traditional openness measures, which only account for local, nearest- neighbor linkages through which ideas and knowledge can flow. Using 1995-2010 data, we show that global country centrality in the temporary human-mobility network enhances both per-capita income and labor productivity. Our results hold cross-sectionally, as well as in a dynamic-panel estimation, and take into account potential endogeneity issues. Our findings imply that how close a country is to the theoretical technological frontier, depends not only on how much she is open to temporary human mobility, but mostly on whether she is embedded in a web of relationships connecting her with other influential partners in the network. Our exercises also suggest that most of the gain in income and productivity can be attained if country centrality in the network comes mostly from influential partners that lie not too far away from, but neither too close to them in the network.

Suggested Citation

  • Giorgio Fagiolo & Gianluca Santoni, 2014. "Human-Mobility Networks, Country Income, and Labor Productivity," LEM Papers Series 2014/08, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
  • Handle: RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2014/08
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.lem.sssup.it/WPLem/files/2014-08.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertoli, Simone & Fernández-Huertas Moraga, Jesús, 2013. "Multilateral resistance to migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 79-100.
    2. Alberto Alesina & Johann Harnoss & Hillel Rapoport, 2016. "Birthplace diversity and economic prosperity," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 101-138, June.
    3. Moreno, Ramon & Trehan, Bharat, 1997. "Location and the Growth of Nations," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 2(4), pages 399-418, December.
    4. Coralio Ballester & Antoni Calvó-Armengol & Yves Zenou, 2006. "Who's Who in Networks. Wanted: The Key Player," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(5), pages 1403-1417, September.
    5. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    6. Emmanouil Tranos & Masood Gheasi & Peter Nijkamp, 2015. "International Migration: A Global Complex Network," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 42(1), pages 4-22, February.
    7. Hale, Galina, 2012. "Bank relationships, business cycles, and financial crises," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 312-325.
    8. Giorgio Fagiolo, 2006. "Directed or Undirected? A New Index to Check for Directionality of Relations in Socio-Economic Networks," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 3(34), pages 1-12.
    9. Camelia Minoiu & Chanhyun Kang & V.S. Subrahmanian & Anamaria Berea, 2015. "Does financial connectedness predict crises?," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 607-624, April.
    10. David H. Romer & Jeffrey A. Frankel, 1999. "Does Trade Cause Growth?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 379-399, June.
    11. Mayer, Thierry & Zignago, Soledad, 2006. "Notes on CEPII’s distances measures," MPRA Paper 26469, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Francisco Alcalá & Antonio Ciccone, 2004. "Trade and Productivity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 119(2), pages 613-646.
    13. Conley, Timothy G & Ligon, Ethan, 2002. "Economic Distance and Cross-Country Spillovers," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 157-187, June.
    14. Wolfgang Keller, 2004. "International Technology Diffusion," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 752-782, September.
    15. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9771 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Jon Kleinberg, 2007. "The wireless epidemic," Nature, Nature, vol. 449(7160), pages 287-288, September.
    17. Lorenzo Ductor & Marcel Fafchamps & Sanjeev Goyal & Marco J. van der Leij, 2014. "Social Networks and Research Output," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(5), pages 936-948, December.
    18. CSAJI, Balazs Cs. & BROWET, Arnaud & TRAAG, V.A. & DELVENNE, Jean-Charles, 2013. "Exploring the mobility of mobile phone users," LIDAM Reprints CORE 2508, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    19. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    20. David Roodman, 2009. "A Note on the Theme of Too Many Instruments," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(1), pages 135-158, February.
    21. Stephen Bond & Anke Hoeffler, 2001. "GMM Estimation of Empirical Growth Models," Economics Series Working Papers 2001-W21, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    22. Kyu-Min Lee & Jae-Suk Yang & Gunn Kim & Jaesung Lee & Kwang-Il Goh & In-mook Kim, 2011. "Impact of the Topology of Global Macroeconomic Network on the Spreading of Economic Crises," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(3), pages 1-11, March.
    23. Csáji, Balázs Cs. & Browet, Arnaud & Traag, V.A. & Delvenne, Jean-Charles & Huens, Etienne & Van Dooren, Paul & Smoreda, Zbigniew & Blondel, Vincent D., 2013. "Exploring the mobility of mobile phone users," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(6), pages 1459-1473.
    24. Stephen Bond, 2002. "Dynamic panel data models: a guide to microdata methods and practice," CeMMAP working papers CWP09/02, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    25. Gaulier, Guillaume & Zignago, Soledad, 2004. "Notes on BACI (analytical database of international trade). 1989-2002 version," MPRA Paper 32401, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    26. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    27. Tilak Abeysinghe & Kristin Forbes, 2005. "Trade Linkages and Output‐Multiplier Effects: a Structural VAR Approach with a Focus on Asia," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 356-375, May.
    28. Robert M. May & Simon A. Levin & George Sugihara, 2008. "Ecology for bankers," Nature, Nature, vol. 451(7181), pages 893-894, February.
    29. Raja Kali & Javier Reyes, 2010. "Financial Contagion On The International Trade Network," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(4), pages 1072-1101, October.
    30. Javier Reyes & Stefano Schiavo & Giorgio Fagiolo, 2010. "Using complex networks analysis to assess the evolution of international economic integration: The cases of East Asia and Latin America," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 215-239.
    31. Raja Kali & Fabio Mendez & Javier Reyes, 2007. "Trade structure and economic growth," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 245-269.
    32. Hu, Yihong & Zhu, Daoli, 2009. "Empirical analysis of the worldwide maritime transportation network," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(10), pages 2061-2071.
    33. Jeffrey Frankel & Andrew Rose, 2002. "An Estimate of the Effect of Common Currencies on Trade and Income," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 117(2), pages 437-466.
    34. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    35. Kyle F Davis & Paolo D'Odorico & Francesco Laio & Luca Ridolfi, 2013. "Global Spatio-Temporal Patterns in Human Migration: A Complex Network Perspective," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(1), pages 1-8, January.
    36. Ricardo Hausmann & César Hidalgo, 2011. "The network structure of economic output," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 309-342, December.
    37. Stephane Dees & Arthur Saint-Guilhem, 2011. "The role of the United States in the global economy and its evolution over time," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 573-591, December.
    38. Filippo Simini & Marta C. González & Amos Maritan & Albert-László Barabási, 2012. "A universal model for mobility and migration patterns," Nature, Nature, vol. 484(7392), pages 96-100, April.
    39. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    40. Thomas Andersen & Carl-Johan Dalgaard, 2011. "Flows of people, flows of ideas, and the inequality of nations," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-32, March.
    41. Daron Acemoglu & Asuman Ozdaglar & Alireza Tahbaz-Salehi, 2013. "The Network Origins of Large Economic Downturns," NBER Working Papers 19230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    42. Stephen Bond & Anke Hoeffler & Jonathan Temple, 2001. "GMM Estimation of Empirical Growth Models," Economics Papers 2001-W21, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    43. Alfonso Gambardella & Myriam Mariani & Salvatore Torrisi, 2001. "How Provincial is your Region? Effects on Labour Productivity and Employment in Europe," LEM Papers Series 2001/04, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    44. Daron Acemoglu & Vasco M. Carvalho & Asuman Ozdaglar & Alireza Tahbaz‐Salehi, 2012. "The Network Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(5), pages 1977-2016, September.
    45. Ryuichi Kitamura & Cynthia Chen & Ram Pendyala & Ravi Narayanan, 2000. "Micro-simulation of daily activity-travel patterns for travel demand forecasting," Transportation, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 25-51, February.
    46. Stephen R. Bond, 2002. "Dynamic panel data models: a guide to micro data methods and practice," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 1(2), pages 141-162, August.
    47. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    48. Diego Comin & Bart Hobijn & Emilie Rovito, 2008. "Technology usage lags," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 237-256, December.
    49. J. M. C. Santos Silva & Silvana Tenreyro, 2006. "The Log of Gravity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 641-658, November.
    50. Stephen Bond & Céline Nauges & Frank Windmeijer, 2002. "Unit Roots and Identification in Autoregressive Panel Data Models: A Comparison of Alternative Tests," 10th International Conference on Panel Data, Berlin, July 5-6, 2002 C5-4, International Conferences on Panel Data.
    51. Kyu-Min Lee & Jae-Suk Yang & Gunn Kim & Jaesung Lee & Kwang-Il Goh & In-mook Kim, 2010. "Impact of the topology of global macroeconomic network on the spreading of economic crises," Papers 1011.4336, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2011.
    52. Andrew G. Haldane & Robert M. May, 2011. "Systemic risk in banking ecosystems," Nature, Nature, vol. 469(7330), pages 351-355, January.
    53. McNerney, James & Fath, Brian D. & Silverberg, Gerald, 2013. "Network structure of inter-industry flows," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(24), pages 6427-6441.
    54. Ortega, Francesc & Peri, Giovanni, 2013. "Migration, Trade and Income," IZA Discussion Papers 7325, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    55. Arrow, Kenneth J, 1969. "Classificatory Notes on the Production and Transmission of Technological Knowledge," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 29-35, May.
    56. Simone Bertoli & J. Fernandes-Huertas Moraga, 2013. "Multilateral resistance to migration," Post-Print halshs-00820169, HAL.
    57. O. Woolley-Meza & C. Thiemann & D. Grady & J. Lee & H. Seebens & B. Blasius & D. Brockmann, 2011. "Complexity in human transportation networks: a comparative analysis of worldwide air transportation and global cargo-ship movements," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 84(4), pages 589-600, December.
    58. Xiang-Wen Wang & Xiao-Pu Han & Bing-Hong Wang, 2014. "Correlations and Scaling Laws in Human Mobility," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, January.
    59. Nickell, Stephen J, 1981. "Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-1426, November.
    60. D. Brockmann & L. Hufnagel & T. Geisel, 2006. "The scaling laws of human travel," Nature, Nature, vol. 439(7075), pages 462-465, January.
    61. Giorgio Fagiolo & Marina Mastrorillo, 2013. "Migration and Trade: A Complex-Network Approach," Papers 1309.5859, arXiv.org.
    62. Leo Katz, 1953. "A new status index derived from sociometric analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 18(1), pages 39-43, March.
    63. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    64. Georg Duernecker & Moritz Meyer & Fernando Vega Redondo, 2012. "Being Close to Grow Faster: A Network-Based Empirical Analysis of Economic Globalization," Economics Working Papers ECO2012/05, European University Institute.
    65. Kiyong Keum, 2010. "Tourism flows and trade theory: a panel data analysis with the gravity model," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 44(3), pages 541-557, June.
    66. Miguéns, J.I.L. & Mendes, J.F.F., 2008. "Travel and tourism: Into a complex network," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 387(12), pages 2963-2971.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chakrabarti, Anindya S., 2018. "Dispersion in macroeconomic volatility between the core and periphery of the international trade network," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 31-50.
    2. Matteo Barigozzi & Marc Hallin, 2017. "A network analysis of the volatility of high dimensional financial series," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 66(3), pages 581-605, April.
    3. Jincheng Jiang & Jinsong Chen & Wei Tu & Chisheng Wang, 2019. "A Novel Effective Indicator of Weighted Inter-City Human Mobility Networks to Estimate Economic Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-18, November.
    4. Matteo Barigozzi & Marc Hallin, 2015. "Networks, Dynamic Factors, and the Volatility Analysis of High-Dimensional Financial Series," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2015-34, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    5. Daryna Grechyna, 2020. "Current account and international networks," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 1269-1294, November.
    6. Mihaela Peres & Helian Xu & Gang Wu, 2016. "Community Evolution in International Migration Top1 Networks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vogel, Johanna, 2013. "Regional Convergence in Europe: A Dynamic Heterogeneous Panel Approach," MPRA Paper 51794, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2021. "Effect of the Utilization of Non-Reciprocal Trade Preferences offered by the QUAD on Economic Growth in Beneficiary Countries," EconStor Preprints 242848, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    3. Docquier, Frédéric & Lodigiani, Elisabetta & Rapoport, Hillel & Schiff, Maurice, 2016. "Emigration and democracy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 209-223.
    4. Alali, Walid Y., 2010. "Impact of Institutions and Policy on Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence," MPRA Paper 115610, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2022. "Effect of the utilization of non-reciprocal trade preferences offered by the QUAD countries on beneficiary countries' economic complexity," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    6. Huy Quang Doan, 2019. "Trade, Institutional Quality and Income: Empirical Evidence for Sub-Saharan Africa," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-23, May.
    7. Meschi, Elena & Taymaz, Erol & Vivarelli, Marco, 2011. "Trade, technology and skills: Evidence from Turkish microdata," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(S1), pages 60-70.
    8. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2023. "Duration of membership in the world trade organization and investment-oriented remittances inflows," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 258-277.
    9. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2022. "Duration of WTO Membership and Investment-Oriented Remittances Flows," EconStor Preprints 251274, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    10. Anderson, James E. & Yotov, Yoto V., 2020. "Short run gravity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    11. Ekrame Boubtane & Jean-Christophe Dumont & Christophe Rault, 2013. "Immigration and economic growth in the OECD countries 1986-2006," Post-Print halshs-00800617, HAL.
    12. Martin Andersson & Hans Lööf, 2011. "Agglomeration and productivity: evidence from firm-level data," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 46(3), pages 601-620, June.
    13. Markus Eberhardt & Francis Teal, 2011. "Econometrics For Grumblers: A New Look At The Literature On Cross‐Country Growth Empirics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 109-155, February.
    14. Juan Federico & Joan-Lluis Capelleras, 2015. "The heterogeneous dynamics between growth and profits: the case of young firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 231-253, February.
    15. Ekrame Boubtane & Jean-Christophe Dumont & Christophe Rault, 2016. "Immigration and economic growth in the OECD countries 1986–2006," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 68(2), pages 340-360.
    16. Trax, Michaela & Brunow, Stephan & Suedekum, Jens, 2015. "Cultural diversity and plant-level productivity," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 85-96.
    17. Scott, K. Rebecca, 2011. "Demand and Price Volatility: Rational Habits in International Gasoline Demand," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt2q87432b, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    18. Singhania, Monica & Saini, Neha, 2021. "Demystifying pollution haven hypothesis: Role of FDI," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 516-528.
    19. Beqiraj, Elton & Fedeli, Silvia & Giuriato, Luisa, 2020. "Policy tolerance of economic crime? An empirical analysis of the effect of counterfeiting on Italian trade," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Bas Straathof & Gert Jan Linders & Arjan Lejour & Jan Möhlmann, 2008. "The internal market and the Dutch economy: implications for trade and economic growth," CPB Document 168, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    temporary human-mobility network; International technological diffusion; Per-capita income; Productivity; Openness to mobility and trade; Centrality.;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2014/08. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/labssit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.