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Unilateral facilitation does not raise international labor migration from the Philippines

Author Info

  • Beam, Emily
  • McKenzie, David
  • Yang, Dean

Abstract

Significant income gains from migrating from poorer to richer countries have motivated unilateral (source-country) policies facilitating labor emigration. However, their effectiveness is unknown. The authors conducted a large-scale randomized experiment in the Philippines testing the impact of unilaterally facilitating international labor migration. The most intensive treatment doubled the rate of job offers but had no identifiable effect on international labor migration. Even the highest overseas job-search rate that was induced (22 percent) falls far short of the share initially expressing interest in migrating (34 percent). The paper concludes that unilateral migration facilitation will at most induce a trickle, not a flood, of additional emigration.

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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 6689.

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Date of creation: 01 Nov 2013
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6689
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Keywords: Population Policies; Labor Markets; Labor Policies; Access to Finance; Voluntary and Involuntary Resettlement;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
  • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
  • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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  1. Michael Clemens & Claudio Montenegro & Lant Pritchett, 2008. "The Place Premium: Wage Differences for Identical Workers across the U.S. Border," Working Papers 148, Center for Global Development.
  2. Dean Yang, 2006. "Why Do Migrants Return to Poor Countries? Evidence from Philippine Migrants' Responses to Exchange Rate Shocks," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 715-735, November.
  3. McKenzie, David & Theoharides, Caroline & Yang, Dean, 2012. "Distortions in the International Migrant Labor Market: Evidence from Filipino Migration and Wage Responses to Destination Country Economic Shocks," IZA Discussion Papers 6498, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. John Gibson & David McKenzie, 2010. "The Development Impact of a Best Practice Seasonal Worker Policy," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1029, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London.
  5. David McKenzie & John Gibson & Steven Stillman, 2007. "A land of milk and honey with streets paved with gold: Do emigrants have over-optimistic expectations about incomes abroad?," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0709, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London.
  6. Gharad Bryan & Shyamal Chowdhury & Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, 2014. "Underinvestment in a Profitable Technology: The Case of Seasonal Migration in Bangladesh," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82, pages 1671-1748, 09.
  7. Puri, Shivani & Ritzema, Tineke, 1999. "Migrant worker remittances, micro-finance and the informal economy : prospects and issues," ILO Working Papers 357609, International Labour Organization.
  8. Bryan, Gharad & Chowdhury, Shyamal & Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq, 2012. "Seasonal Migration and Risk Aversion," CEPR Discussion Papers 8739, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  9. Michael A. Clemens, 2011. "Economics and Emigration: Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 83-106, Summer.
  10. Jeffrey Grogger & Gordon H. Hanson, 2008. "Income Maximization and the Selection and Sorting of International Migrants," NBER Working Papers 13821, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  11. David McKenzie & John Gibson & Steven Stillman, 2010. "How Important Is Selection? Experimental vs. Non-Experimental Measures of the Income Gains from Migration," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(4), pages 913-945, 06.
  12. McKenzie, David, 2007. "Paper Walls Are Easier to Tear Down: Passport Costs and Legal Barriers to Emigration," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2026-2039, November.
  13. Mckenzie, David & Rapoport, Hillel, 2007. "Network effects and the dynamics of migration and inequality: Theory and evidence from Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 1-24, September.
  14. Christian Lumpe & Benjamin Weigert, 2009. "Immigration Policy, Equilibrium Unemployment, and Underinvestment in Human Capital," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(1), pages 97-130, 03.
  15. Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2012. "Thinking Small: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty : Review Essay," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 115-27, March.
  16. Gordon H. Hanson, 2008. "The Economic Consequences of the International Migration of Labor," NBER Working Papers 14490, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  17. Ozden, Caglar & Parsons, Christopher R. & Schiff, Maurice & Walmsley, Terrie L., 2011. "Where on earth is everybody ? the evolution of global bilateral migration 1960-2000," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5709, The World Bank.
  18. Orley C. Ashenfelter, 2012. "Comparing Real Wages," NBER Working Papers 18006, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  19. Ortega, Javier, 2000. "Pareto-Improving Immigration in an Economy with Equilibrium Unemployment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(460), pages 92-112, January.
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Cited by:

  1. Sergei Guriev & Elena S. Vakulenko, 2015. "Breaking Out Of Poverty Traps: Internal Migration And Interregional Convergence In Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 88/EC/2015, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
  2. Matthew Groh & David McKenzie & Nour Shammout & Tara Vishwanath, 2015. "Testing the importance of search frictions and matching through a randomized experiment in Jordan," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-20, December.
  3. Catia Batista & Gaia Narciso, 2013. "Migrant Remittances and Information Flows: Evidence from a Field Experiment," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1331, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London.
  4. McKenzie, David & Yang, Dean, 2014. "Evidence on policies to increase the development impacts of international migration," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7057, The World Bank.
  5. Clemens, Michael A., 2014. "Does Development Reduce Migration?," IZA Discussion Papers 8592, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  6. Beam, Emily A., 2016. "Do job fairs matter? Experimental evidence on the impact of job-fair attendance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 32-40.
  7. Clemens, Michael A. & Pritchett, Lant, 2016. "The New Economic Case for Migration Restrictions: An Assessment," IZA Discussion Papers 9730, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  8. Michael Clemens, 2014. "Does Development Reduce Migration? - Working Paper 359," Working Papers 359, Center for Global Development.
  9. Michael Clemens and Timothy N. Ogden, 2014. "Migration as a Strategy for Household Finance: A Research Agenda on Remittances, Payments, and Development- Working Paper 354," Working Papers 354, Center for Global Development.

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