IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp2825.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Is There Too Little Immigration?

Author

Listed:
  • Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu

    (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)

  • Wall, Howard J.

    (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)

Abstract

This paper presents a model of legal migration from one source country to two host countries, both of which can control their levels of immigration. Because of complementarities between capital and labor, the return on capital is positively related to the level of immigration. Consequently, when capital is immobile, host nations’ optimal levels of immigration are positively related to their capital endowments. Further, when capital is mobile between the two host nations, the common return on capital is a function of the levels of immigration in both countries, meaning that immigration is a public good. As a result, when immigration imposes costs on host countries, the Nash equilibrium results in free riding and less immigration than would occur in the cooperative equilibrium. These results are qualitatively unaltered when capital mobility extends to the source nation.

Suggested Citation

  • Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu & Wall, Howard J., 2007. "Is There Too Little Immigration?," IZA Discussion Papers 2825, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2825
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp2825.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George J. Borjas, 2021. "Does Immigration Grease the Wheels of the Labor Market?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 14, pages 431-484, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. J. Behrman & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), 1995. "Handbook of Development Economics," Handbook of Development Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 3.
    3. Rodrik, Rani, 1995. "Trade and industrial policy reform," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 45, pages 2925-2982, Elsevier.
    4. Panagariya, Arvind & Schiff, Maurice, 1994. "Can revenue maximizing export taxes yield higher welfare than welfare maximizing export taxes?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 79-84, May.
    5. Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu, 1996. "Growth, welfare and optimal trade taxes: a fallacy of composition," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 369-380, August.
    6. Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano & Giovanni Peri, 2005. "Rethinking the Gains from Immigration: Theory and Evidence from the U.S," NBER Working Papers 11672, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. George J. Borjas, 2021. "The Labor Demand Curve Is Downward Sloping: Reexamining The Impact Of Immigration On The Labor Market," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 9, pages 235-274, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Ethier, Wilfred J, 1986. "Illegal Immigration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 258-262, May.
    9. Christian Dustmann & Arthur Van Soest, 2002. "Language and the Earnings of Immigrants," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 55(3), pages 473-492, April.
    10. J. Behrman & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), 1995. "Handbook of Development Economics," Handbook of Development Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 4.
    11. Richard B. Freeman, 2004. "Trade Wars: The Exaggerated Impact of Trade in Economic Debate," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 1-23, January.
    12. Xin Meng & Robert G. Gregory, 2005. "Intermarriage and the Economic Assimilation of Immigrants," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(1), pages 135-176, January.
    13. Ethier, Wilfred J, 1986. "Illegal Immigration: The Host-Country Problem," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(1), pages 56-71, March.
    14. Scott M. Fuess, 2003. "Immigration Policy and Highly Skilled Workers: The Case of Japan," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 21(2), pages 243-257, April.
    15. Bond, Eric W. & Chen, Tain-Jy, 1987. "The welfare effects of illegal immigration," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3-4), pages 315-328, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items 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. Subhayu Bandyopadhyay & Howard Wall, 2008. "Is there too little immigration? An analysis of temporary skilled migration," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 197-211.
    2. Gordon H. Hanson, 2006. "Illegal Migration from Mexico to the United States," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 44(4), pages 869-924, December.
    3. Gordon H. Hanson & Antonio Spilimbergo, 2001. "Political economy, sectoral shocks, and border enforcement," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(3), pages 612-638, August.
    4. Emmanuelle Auriol & Alice Mesnard, 2016. "Sale of Visas: a Smuggler's Final Song?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(332), pages 646-678, October.
    5. Amin, Mohammad & Mattoo, Aaditya, 2006. "Can guest worker schemes reduce illegal migration ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3828, The World Bank.
    6. Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu & Pinto, Santiago M., 2017. "Unauthorized immigration and fiscal competition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 283-305.
    7. Matthias Busse & José L. Groizard, 2008. "Technology Trade in Economic Development," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 569-592, April.
    8. Alexandra Vinogradova, 2016. "Illegal immigration, deportation policy, and the optimal timing of return," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 781-816, July.
    9. Diana Barros (a) Aurora A.C. Teixeira (b), 2021. "A Portrait of Development Economics in the Last Sixty Years," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 46(2), pages 69-118, June.
    10. Silke Uebelmesser, 2006. "Yoshida, C., and Woodland, D.: The Economics of Illegal Immigration," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 89(2), pages 192-195, November.
    11. Dufour, Jean-Marie & Taamouti, Mohamed, 2007. "Further results on projection-based inference in IV regressions with weak, collinear or missing instruments," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 133-153, July.
    12. Javier Ferri & Antonio G. Gómez-Plana & Joan Martín-Montaner, "undated". "International inmigration and mobility across sectors: an exploration of alternative scenarios for Spain," Studies on the Spanish Economy 124, FEDEA.
    13. Charles F Mason, 2017. "Climate Change and Migration: A Dynamic Model," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 63(4), pages 421-444.
    14. Subhayu Bandyopadhyay & Howard J. Wall, 2010. "Immigration and Outsourcing: A General-Equilibrium Analysis," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(s1), pages 433-446, August.
    15. Slobodan Djajić, 2017. "Transit migration," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 1017-1045, November.
    16. Tim Krieger & Steffen Minter, 2007. "Immigration amnesties in the southern EU member states - a challenge for the entire EU?," Working Papers CIE 6, Paderborn University, CIE Center for International Economics.
    17. Horst Entorf & Jochen Moebert, 2004. "The demand for illegal migration and market outcomes," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 39(1), pages 7-10, January.
    18. Jean, Sébastien & Jiménez, Miguel, 2011. "The unemployment impact of immigration in OECD countries," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 241-256, June.
    19. Devadoss, Stephen & Luckstead, Jeff, 2017. "Immigration Policies and Farm Labor," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258435, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Falvey, Rod & Gemmell, Norman, 1999. "Factor endowments, nontradables prices and measures of 'openness'," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 101-122, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    free riding; capital mobility; externalities; immigration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    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:iza:izadps:dp2825. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.