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Deep trade agreements and international migration: the role of visa provisions

Author

Listed:
  • Anthonin Levelu
  • Anna Maria Mayda
  • Gianluca Orefice

    (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

An increasing number of regional trade agreements contains provisions that ease access to visas among member countries, which reduces the administrative cost of crossing the border. Combining United Nations data on bilateral stocks of immigrants in the period 1990–2020 with World Bank data on the content of 279 regional trade agreements, this article presents robust evidence of a positive effect of visa provisions in regional trade agreements on bilateral migration: the presence of visa provisions in regional trade agreements increases the bilateral stock of immigrants by 5.8 per cent. This result is robust to an instrumental variable strategy addressing the endogeneity problem. The effect of the inclusion of visa provisions in regional trade agreements is particularly effective among country pairs with different income levels (such as North-South). For this type of country pairs, the presence of visa provisions in regional trade agreements increases the bilateral stock of immigrants by 12.7 per cent. Finally, the article shows that the effectiveness of visa provisions in regional trade agreements reduces with the anti-immigration sentiment of voters in the destination.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthonin Levelu & Anna Maria Mayda & Gianluca Orefice, 2025. "Deep trade agreements and international migration: the role of visa provisions," Post-Print hal-05492895, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05492895
    DOI: 10.1093/jeg/lbae014
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    Cited by:

    1. Aruna Gounder & Rod Falvey & Gulasekaran Rajaguru, 2025. "What Role do Preferential Trading Arrangements Play in Cross-Border Worker Mobility? Some Asian Evidence," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 2381-2414, December.
    2. T. Renee Bowen & J. Lawrence Broz & Christina J. Schneider, 2026. "Domestic politics and international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-40, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration

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