IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wuk/ucloec/9602.html

An Economic Analysis of Return Migration

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Dustmann

    (University College London
    CEPR, London)

Abstract

This paper develops a model which rationalizes the decision of a migrant to return to his home country, despite a persistent higher wage in the host country, and provides a careful analysis of the optimal duration in the host country. Three motives for a temporary migration are provided: Differences in relative prices in host- and home country, the possibility of accumulating human capital abroad which is only earnings-effective back home, and complementaries between consumption and the location where consumption takes place. The optimal duration in the host country is then investigated, and the analysis produces some surprising and unexpected results.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Dustmann, 1996. "An Economic Analysis of Return Migration," Discussion Papers 96-02 ISSN 1350-6722, University College London, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wuk:ucloec:9602
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: ftp://ftp.repec.org/RePEc/wuk/ucloec/ucloec9602.ps
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raffelhuschen, Bernd, 1992. "Labor migration in Europe : Experiences from Germany after unification," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1453-1471, October.
    2. Sherwin Rosen, 1972. "Learning by Experience as Joint Production," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 86(3), pages 366-382.
    3. Oded Stark, 1991. "The Migration of Labor," Blackwell Books, Wiley Blackwell, number 1557860300, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gijs Beets & Frans Willekens, 2009. "The global economic crisis and international migration: An uncertain outlook," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 7(1), pages 19-37.
    2. Lena Nekby, 2006. "The emigration of immigrants, return vs onward migration: evidence from Sweden," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(2), pages 197-226, June.
    3. Lutz Hendricks, "undated". "Migration and Human Capital," Working Papers 97/6, Arizona State University, Department of Economics.
    4. Longva, Pal, 2001. "Out-migration of immigrants : implications for assimilation analysis," Memorandum 04/2001, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    5. Bellemare, Charles, 2007. "A life-cycle model of outmigration and economic assimilation of immigrants in Germany," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 553-576, April.

    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. Manfred Keil & Andrew Newell, 1993. "Internal migration and unemployment in Germany: An anglo-irish perspective," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 129(3), pages 514-536, September.
    2. Czaika Mathias, 2009. "The Political Economy of Refugee Migration," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 229(6), pages 803-824, December.
    3. Laila Touhami Morghem & Khawlah Ali Abdalla Spetan, 2020. "Determinants of International Migration: An Applied Study on Selected Arab Countries (1995-2017)," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 10(2), pages 6-19.
    4. Pierre‐Richard Agénor, 2004. "Macroeconomic Adjustment and the Poor: Analytical Issues and Cross‐Country Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 351-408, July.
    5. Mohamed Amara & Hatem Jemmali, 2018. "Deciphering the Relationship Between Internal Migration and Regional Disparities in Tunisia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 313-331, January.
    6. Fidrmuc, Jan, 2001. "Migration and adjustment to shocks in transition economies," ZEI Working Papers B 23-2001, University of Bonn, ZEI - Center for European Integration Studies.
    7. V. V. Chari & Patrick J. Kehoe & Ellen R. McGrattan, 1996. "The Poverty of Nations: A Quantitative Exploration," NBER Working Papers 5414, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Guy Stecklov & Calogero Carletto & Carlo Azzarri & Benjamin Davis, 2010. "Gender and migration from Albania," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(4), pages 935-961, November.
    9. Xiushi Yang, 2000. "Determinants of Migration Intentions in Hubei Province, China: Individual versus Family Migration," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 32(5), pages 769-787, May.
    10. Thomas Bauer & Mathias Sinning, 2011. "The savings behavior of temporary and permanent migrants in Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 421-449, April.
    11. Driouchi, Ahmed & Zouag, Nada, 2010. "Internal Mobility and Likelihood of Skill Losses in Localities of Emigration: Theory and Preliminary Empirical Application to Some Developing Economies," MPRA Paper 21799, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Apr 2010.
    12. Seksiri Niwattisaiwong & Komsan Suriya, 2018. "Margin of luck and value of information in lottery purchases in Thailand," RAIS Journal for Social Sciences, Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 2(2), pages 1-11, December.
    13. Dustmann, Christian, 2003. "Return migration, wage differentials, and the optimal migration duration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 353-369, April.
    14. de Arce, Rafael & Mahia, Ramon, 2008. "Determinants of Bilateral Immigration Flows Between The European Union and some Mediterranean Partner Countries: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey," MPRA Paper 14547, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Robert E.B. Lucas, 2007. "Migration and rural development," The Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, vol. 4(1), pages 99-122.
    16. Männasoo, Kadri, 2022. "Working hours and gender wage differentials: Evidence from the American Working Conditions Survey," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    17. Piras, Simone & Vittuari, Matteo & Möllers, Judith & Herzfeld, Thomas, 2018. "Remittance inflow and smallholder farming practices. The case of Moldova," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 654-665.
    18. Ira N. Gang & Thomas Bauer, 2000. "Return Migrants From Egypt: How Long Did They Stay Abroad?," Departmental Working Papers 199811, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    19. Ana María Ibá-ez, 2014. "Growth in forced displacement: cross-country, sub-national and household evidence on potential determinants," Chapters, in: Robert E.B. Lucas (ed.), International Handbook on Migration and Economic Development, chapter 13, pages 350-387, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. J. Edward Taylor & Scott Rozelle & Alan deBrauw, 1999. "Migration, Remittances, and Agricultural Productivity in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 287-291, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D9 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration

    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:wuk:ucloec:9602. 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.

    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: WoPEc Project (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deucluk.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.