Openness and income: The roles of trade and migration

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ortega, Francesc; Peri, Giovanni
• 署名单位: City University of New York (CUNY) System; Queens College NY (CUNY); University of California System; University of California Davis; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2013.11.008
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 231-251
• 关键词: international migration; TRADE; Income per person; geography; institutions; diversity

摘要

This paper explores the relationship between openness to trade, immigration, and income per person across countries. To address endogeneity concerns we extend the instrumental-variables strategy introduced by Frankel and Romer (1999). We build predictors of openness to immigration and to trade for each country by using information on bilateral geographical and cultural distance (while controlling for country size). Since geography may affect income through other channels, we also control for climate, disease environment, natural resources, and colonial origins. Most importantly, we also account for the roles of institutions and early development. Our instrumental-variables estimates provide evidence of a robust, positive effect of openness to immigration on long-run income per capita. In contrast, we are unable to establish an effect of trade openness on income. We also show that the effect of migration operates through an increase in total factor productivity, which appears to reflect increased diversity in productive skills and, to some extent, a higher rate of innovation. (C) 2014 International Monetary Fund. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.