IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/uwa/wpaper/15-12.html

The Global Economic Implications of Freer Skilled Migration

Author

Listed:
  • Rod Tyers

    (Business School, University of Western Australia and Research School of Economics, Australian National University)

  • Iain Bain

    (KPMG Sydney)

Abstract

Trade and technology driven increases in skill premia in the older industrial regions since the 1980s have raised the spectre of “skill shortages”, one consequence of which has been freer migration of skilled and professional workers from developing regions. The links between demographic change, migration flows and economic growth are here explored using a demographic sub-model that is integrated within an otherwise standard model of the global economy in which regional households are disaggregated by age and gender. New matrices of global migration flows are developed and disaggregated by skill level to support this modelling. Skilled migration flows are assumed to be motivated by real wage differences to an extent that is variably constrained by immigration policies. A uniform relaxation of these constraints is shown to have most effect on labour markets in the traditional migrant destinations, Australia, Western Europe and North America, where it restrains the skill premium and substantially enhances GDP growth. Skill premia are raised and GDP growth slowed, however, in regions of origin, and particularly in South Asia, where the wage gap with the West is particularly high. On average, therefore, global wage inequality is exacerbated by expanded skilled migration.

Suggested Citation

  • Rod Tyers & Iain Bain, 2015. "The Global Economic Implications of Freer Skilled Migration," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 15-12, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwa:wpaper:15-12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ecompapers.biz.uwa.edu.au/paper/PDF%20of%20Discussion%20Papers/2015/15.12%20Tyers%2C%20R.%20and%20Bain%2C%20I.%20-%20THE%20GLOBAL%20ECONOMIC%20IMPLICATIONS%20OF%20FREER%20SKILLED%20MIGRATION.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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. Rod Tyers & Ying Zhang, 2014. "Real exchange rate determination and the China puzzle," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 28(2), pages 1-32, November.
    2. Jane Golley & Rod Tyers & Yixiao Zhou, 2018. "Fertility and savings contractions in China: Long‐run global implications," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(11), pages 3194-3220, November.
    3. Rod Tyers & Ying Zhang, 2011. "Appreciating the Renminbi," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 265-297, February.
    4. Jane Golley & Rod Tyers & Yixiao Zhou, 2016. "Contractions in Chinese Fertility and Savings: Long-run Domestic and Global Implications," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Iris Day & John Simon (ed.),Structural Change in China: Implications for Australia and the World, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    5. Rod Tyers & Jane Golley, 2008. "China’s Real Exchange Rate Puzzle," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 23, pages 547-574.
    6. Rod Tyers & Jenny Corbett, 2012. "Japan's economic slowdown and its global implications: a review of the economic modelling," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 26(2), pages 1-28, November.

    More about this item

    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:uwa:wpaper:15-12. 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: Sam Tang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuwaau.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.