IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/yaleeg/56757.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Global Wage Inequality and the International Flow of Migrants

Author

Listed:
  • Rosenzweig, Mark R.

Abstract

A framework for understanding the determinants in the variation in the pricing of skills across countries and the model underlying the Mincer specification of wages that is used widely to estimate the relationship between schooling and wages are described. A method for identifying skill prices and for testing the Mincer model, using wages and the human capital attributes of workers located around the world, is discussed. A global wage equation that nests the Mincer specification is estimated that provides skill price estimates for 140 countries. The estimates reject the Mincer model. The skill price estimates indicate that variation in skill prices dominates the cross-country variation in schooling levels or rates of return to schooling in accounting for the global inequality in the earnings of workers worldwide. Variation in skill prices and GDP across countries has opposite and significant effects on the number and quality of migrants to the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosenzweig, Mark R., 2010. "Global Wage Inequality and the International Flow of Migrants," Center Discussion Papers 56757, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:yaleeg:56757
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.56757
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/56757/files/cdp983.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.56757?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:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guillermina Jasso & Douglas Massey & Mark Rosenzweig & James Smith, 2000. "The new immigrant survey pilot (NIS-P): Overview and new findings about U.S. Legal immigrants at admission," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(1), pages 127-138, February.
    2. Barro, Robert J & Lee, Jong-Wha, 2001. "International Data on Educational Attainment: Updates and Implications," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 53(3), pages 541-563, July.
    3. Richard B. Freeman & Remco H. Oostendorp, 2002. "Wages Around the World: Pay across Occupations and Countries," International Economic Association Series, in: Richard B. Freeman (ed.), Inequality Around the World, chapter 2, pages 5-37, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Beine, Michel & Docquier, Frederic & Rapoport, Hillel, 2001. "Brain drain and economic growth: theory and evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 275-289, February.
    5. Jacob Mincer, 1958. "Investment in Human Capital and Personal Income Distribution," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66, pages 281-281.
    6. Peter J. Klenow & Mark Bils, 2000. "Does Schooling Cause Growth?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1160-1183, December.
    7. Jasso, Guillermina & Rosenzweig, Mark R., 2008. "Selection Criteria and the Skill Composition of Immigrants: A Comparative Analysis of Australian and U.S. Employment Immigration," IZA Discussion Papers 3564, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    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. Orley Ashenfelter, 2012. "Comparing Real Wage Rates: Presidential Address," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 617-642, April.
    2. Ro, Annie & Fleischer, Nancy L. & Blebu, Bridgette, 2016. "An examination of health selection among U.S. immigrants using multi-national data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 114-121.
    3. Dozie Okoye, 2016. "Appropriate Technology And Income Differences," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(3), pages 955-996, August.
    4. Lutz Hendricks & Todd Schoellman, 2018. "Human Capital and Development Accounting: New Evidence from Wage Gains at Migration," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(2), pages 665-700.
    5. Ashenfelter, Orley, 2012. "Comparing Real Wage Rates," IZA Discussion Papers 6500, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Michael A. Clemens & Claudio Montenegro & Lant Pritchett, 2016. "Bounding the Price Equivalent of Migration Barriers," CID Working Papers 316, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    7. Rodrik, Dani, 2017. "Is Global Equality the Enemy of National Equality?," Working Paper Series rwp17-003, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    8. Harald Fadinger & Karin Mayr, 2014. "Skill-Biased Technological Change, Unemployment, And Brain Drain," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 397-431, April.
    9. Brauw, Alan de, 2015. "Migration, Youth, and Agricultural Productivity in Ethiopia," 2015 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting, January 3-5, 2015, Boston, Massachusetts 189684, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Dmytro Vikhrov, 2017. "Immigration policy index," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 25(1), pages 3-46, January.
    11. repec:pri:indrel:dsp01t435gd01h is not listed on IDEAS

    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. Milo Bianchi, 2013. "Immigration Policy and Self-Selecting Migrants," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 15(1), pages 1-23, February.
    2. Rogers, Mark Llewellyn, 2008. "Directly unproductive schooling: How country characteristics affect the impact of schooling on growth," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 356-385, February.
    3. Mariele Macaluso, 2022. "The influence of skill-based policies on the immigrant selection process," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(2), pages 595-621, July.
    4. John Beirne & Nauro F. Campos, 2007. "Educational inputs and outcomes before the transition from communism," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 15(1), pages 57-76, January.
    5. Pandey, Manish, 2008. "Human capital aggregation and relative wages across countries," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1587-1601, December.
    6. Trofimov, Ivan D. & Baawi, Nurulhana A., 2020. "Human Capital: State of the Field and Ways to Extend the Concept," MPRA Paper 107039, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Harald Fadinger & Karin Mayr, 2014. "Skill-Biased Technological Change, Unemployment, And Brain Drain," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 397-431, April.
    8. Harald Fadinger & Karin Mayr, 2014. "Skill-Biased Technological Change, Unemployment, And Brain Drain," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 397-431, April.
    9. Giuseppe Folloni & Giorgio Vittadini, 2010. "Human Capital Measurement: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 248-279, April.
    10. José Luis Groizard & Joan Llull, 2006. "Skilled migration and growth. Testing brain drain and brain gain theories," DEA Working Papers 20, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Departament d'Economía Aplicada.
    11. Batista, Catia & Lacuesta, Aitor & Vicente, Pedro C., 2007. "Brain Drain or Brain Gain? Micro Evidence from an African Success Story," IZA Discussion Papers 3035, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. repec:zbw:rwidps:0030 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Luca Marchiori & I-Ling Shen & Frédéric Docquier, 2013. "Brain Drain In Globalization: A General Equilibrium Analysis From The Sending Countries' Perspective," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(2), pages 1582-1602, April.
    14. Jellal, Mohamed, 2014. "Education private and social returns an optimal taxation policy," MPRA Paper 57190, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Kui-Wai Li & Tung Liu & Lihong Yun, 2007. "Technology Progress, Efficiency, and Scale of Economy in Post-reform China," Working Papers 200701, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2007.
    16. Castelló-Climent, Amparo & Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop, 2013. "Mass education or a minority well educated elite in the process of growth: The case of India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 303-320.
    17. Areendam Chanda & Beatrice Farkas, 2009. "Technology-Skill Complementarity and International TFP Differences," DEGIT Conference Papers c014_028, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    18. Carstensen Kai & Hartmann Susanne & Gundlach Erich, 2009. "The Augmented Solow Model with Mincerian Schooling and Externalities," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 10(4), pages 448-463, December.
    19. Andrés Rodríguez-Clare, 2005. "Innovation and Technology Adoption in Central America," Research Department Publications 4395, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    20. William Maloney & Andrés Rodríguez‐Clare, 2007. "Innovation Shortfalls," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(4), pages 665-684, November.
    21. Andrew Mountford & Hillel Rapoport, 2006. "The Brain Drain and the World Distribution of Income and Population Growth," DEGIT Conference Papers c011_048, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    International Development; Labor and Human Capital;

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    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:ags:yaleeg:56757. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/egyalus.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.