IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejpol/v16y2024i2p335-65.html

Migrants at Sea: Unintended Consequences of Search and Rescue Operations

Author

Listed:
  • Claudio Deiana
  • Vikram Maheshri
  • Giovanni Mastrobuoni

Abstract

Many countries are facing and resisting strong migratory pressure, fueling irregular migration. In response to mounting deaths in the Central Mediterranean, European nations intensified rescue operations in 2013. We develop a model of irregular migration to identify the effects of these operations. We find that smugglers responded by sending boats in adverse weather and utilizing flimsy rafts, thus inducing more crossings in dangerous conditions and ultimately offsetting intended safety benefits due to moral hazard. Despite the increased risk, these operations likely increased aggregate migrant welfare; nevertheless, a more successful policy should instead restrict supply of rafts and expand legal alternatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudio Deiana & Vikram Maheshri & Giovanni Mastrobuoni, 2024. "Migrants at Sea: Unintended Consequences of Search and Rescue Operations," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 335-365, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:335-65
    DOI: 10.1257/pol.20220014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20220014
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E179901V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20220014.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20220014.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/pol.20220014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Giacomo Battiston & Lucia Corno & Eliana La Ferrara, 2024. "Informing Risky Migration: Evidence from a field experiment in Guinea," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 2434, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    2. Giacomo Battiston & Lucia Corno & Eliana La Ferrara, 2024. "Informing Risky Migration: Evidence from a field experiment in Guinea," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def136, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    3. Liu, Ziheng, 2025. "CO2-driven crop comparative advantage and planting decision: Evidence from US cropland," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    4. Escamilla-Guerrero, David & Kosack, Edward & Ward, Zachary, 2025. "The impact of violence on the dynamics of migration: Evidence from the Mexican Revolution," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    5. Deiana, Claudio & Geraci, Andrea & Mastrobuoni, Giovanni & Weidenholzer, Simon, 2025. "Running the risk: Immunity and mobility in response to a pandemic," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    6. Katherine Hoffmann Pham & Junpei Komiyama, 2024. "Strategic choices of migrants and smugglers in the Central Mediterranean sea," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(4), pages 1-32, April.
    7. Di Maio,Michele & Elmallakh,Nelly Youssef Louis William & Leone Sciabolazza,Valerio, 2024. "News Sentiment in Destination Countries and Migration Choices : Evidence from Libya," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10754, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • K37 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Immigration Law
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

    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:aea:aejpol:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:335-65. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.