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Unilateral facilitation does not raise international labor migration from the Philippines

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Listed author(s):
  • 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
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:
  • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
  • 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
  • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

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