Do high-income or low-income immigrants leave faster?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bijwaard, Govert E.; Wahba, Jackline
• 署名单位: IZA Institute Labor Economics; University of Southampton
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2014.01.006
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 54-68
• 关键词: Migration dynamics; Labor market transitions; competing risks; immigrant assimilation

摘要

We estimate the impact of the income earned in the host country on return migration of labor migrants from developing countries. We use a three-state correlated competing risks model to account for the strong dependence of labor market status and the income earned. Our analysis is based on administrative panel data of recent labor immigrants from developing countries to The Netherlands. The empirical results show that intensities of return migration are U-shaped with respect to migrants' income, implying a higher intensity in low- and high-income groups. Indeed, the lowest-income group has the highest probability of return. We also find that ignoring the interdependence of labor market status and the income earned leads to an overestimating the income effect on departure. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.