Essays on Human Capital Formation, Living Standards and Selective Migration PDF Download

Author: Yvonne Stolz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Human capital
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: Maria Adriaantje Kleemans
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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This dissertation is composed of three chapters and studies issues related to economic development and migration. The first chapter looks at migration choice in an environment where people face risk and liquidity constraints. The second chapter, which is co-authored with Jeremy Magruder, studies the labor market impact of immigration in Indonesia. The third chapter is written together with Joan Hamory Hick and Edward Miguel and examines selection into migration in Kenya. The first paper develops and tests a migration choice model that incorporates two prominent migration strategies used by households facing risk and liquidity constraints. On the one hand, migration can be used as an ex-post risk-coping strategy after sudden negative income shocks. On the other hand, migration can be seen an as investment, but liquidity constraints may prevent households from paying up-front migration costs, in which case positive income shocks may increase migration. These diverging migratory responses to shocks are modeled within a dynamic migration choice framework that I test using a 20-year panel of internal migration decisions by 38,914 individuals in Indonesia. I document evidence that migration increases after contemporaneous negative income shocks as well as after an accumulation of preceding positive shocks. Consistent with the model, I find that migration after negative shocks is more often characterized by temporary moves to rural destinations and is more likely to be used by those with low levels of wealth, while investment migration is more likely to involve urban destinations, occur over longer distances, and be longer in duration. Structural estimation of the model reveals that migration costs are higher for those with lower levels of wealth and education, and suggests that the two migration strategies act as substitutes, meaning that those who migrate to cope with a negative shock are less likely to invest in migration. I use the structural estimates to simulate policy experiments of providing credit and subsidizing migration, and I explore the impact of increased weather shock intensity in order to better understand the possible impact of climate change on migration. The second paper studies the labor market impact of internal migration in Indonesia by instrumenting migrant flows with rainfall shocks at the origin area. Estimates reveal that a one percentage point increase in the share of migrants decreases income by 1.22 percent and reduces employment by 0.26 percentage points. These effects are different across sectors: employment reductions are concentrated in the formal sector, while income reduction occurs in the informal sector. Negative consequences are most pronounced for low-skilled natives, even though migrants are systematically highly skilled. We suggest that the two-sector nature of the labor market may explain this pattern. The third paper exploits a new longitudinal dataset to examine selective migration among 1,500 Kenyan youth originally living in rural areas. More than one-third of individuals report moving to an urban area during the study period. Understanding how this migration differs for people with different ability levels is important for correctly estimating urban-rural wage gaps, and for characterizing the process of "structural transformation" out of agriculture. We examine whether migration rates are related to individual "ability", broadly defined to include cognitive aptitude as well as health, and then use these estimates to determine how much of the urban-rural wage gap in Kenya is due to selection versus actual productivity differences. Whereas previous empirical work has focused on schooling attainment as a proxy for cognitive ability, we employ an arguably preferable measure, a pre-migration primary school academic test score. Pre-migration randomized assignment to a deworming treatment program provides variation in health status. We find a positive relationship between both measures of human capital (cognitive ability and deworming) and subsequent migration, though only the former is robust at standard statistical significance levels. Specifically, an increase of two standard deviations in academic test score increases the likelihood of rural-urban migration by 17%. Results are robust to conditioning on household demographic and socioeconomic measures that might capture some aspect of credit constraints or household bargaining. In an interesting contrast with the existing literature, schooling attainment is not significantly associated with urban migration once cognitive ability is accounted for. In contrast, academic test score performance is not correlated with international migration to neighboring Uganda. Accounting for migration selection due to both cognitive ability and schooling attainment does not explain more than a small fraction of the sizeable urban-rural wage gap in Kenya, suggesting that productivity differences across sectors remain large.

Author: Joan Hamory Hicks
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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According to the World Bank's World Development Report 2007, there are 1.3 billion young adults aged 12-24 living in less-developed countries today. Individuals in this age group are going through a period of tremendous flux in their lives as they embark on marriage, job searches or higher education, and their experiences during this time will shape the next generation of decision makers. Research focusing on the choices of these individuals, as well as the circumstances under which they are made, is urgently needed. The present collection of essays seeks to advance such research by utilizing a recent longitudinal survey to examine the decisions of young adults in rural Kenya as they relate to education, migration and behavior in the wake of violent civil conflict. Chapter 1 explores the extent to which individual academic and cognitive ability is factored into household decisions concerning education. Panel information on schooling for nearly 1,900 rural Kenyan youth over the period 1998-2008 is combined with satellite precipitation data in order to examine the effects of agricultural income variability on school attendance. A unique early-age academic test score proxies for child ability. Regression analysis indicates that during times of plenty, there is an 11 percent increase in attendance of high ability relative to low ability individuals, suggesting households recognize and value ability when making schooling decisions. This finding is framed using a model of human capital accumulation in which schooling decisions are a function of individual ability. Surprisingly, although youth on the whole are less likely to attend school during negative income shocks, there are no differential attendance changes across individuals of different ability levels. Instead, credit constraints and income shocks may work together in this setting to limit desirable human capital investments. Such consumption smoothing behavior could imply negative long-term effects on household welfare. Chapter 2 studies selective migration among 1,500 Kenyan youth originally living in rural areas. In particular, this essay examines whether migration rates are related to individual "ability", broadly defined to include cognitive aptitude as well as health, and then uses these estimates to determine how much of the urban-rural wage gap in Kenya is due to selection versus actual productivity differences. Whereas previous empirical work has focused on schooling attainment as a proxy for cognitive ability, the present research employs an arguably preferable measure, a pre-migration primary school academic test score. Pre-migration randomized assignment to a deworming treatment program provides variation in health status. Results suggest a positive relationship between both measures of human capital (cognitive ability and deworming) and subsequent migration, though only the former is robust at standard statistical significance levels. Specifically, an increase of two standard deviations in academic test score increases the likelihood of rural-urban migration by 17%. In an interesting contrast with the existing literature, schooling attainment is not significantly associated with urban migration once cognitive ability is accounted for. Accounting for migration selection due to both cognitive ability and schooling attainment does not explain more than a small fraction of the sizeable urban-rural wage gap in Kenya, suggesting that productivity differences across sectors remain large. Finally, Chapter 3 examines the socioeconomic impacts of two months of protests and violent, primarily ethnic-based clashes that erupted across central and western Kenya in late 2007 following the controversial conclusion of a heavily-contested presidential election. Although not an epicenter of the conflict, Busia District experienced sporadic unrest, an influx of refugees from other parts of Kenya, inflation, supply shortages, and local market closures. Unique and timely survey data collected from young adults living primarily in this district of rural western Kenya in the months surrounding the election permits the use of both differences-in-differences and propensity score matching methodologies to estimate the short- to medium-run impacts of this conflict, and both approaches yield broadly similar findings. Despite little support for lasting effects on labor, migration and nutritional outcomes within weeks of cessation of the violence, there do appear to be persistent consequences for social cohesion and informal financial activities. While there is little indication of change in survey respondents' self-reported attitudes regarding trust of others, analysis confirms large declines in attendance at religious services, participation in community and bible groups, and utilization of non-family members as points of contact for future survey enumeration efforts. These findings highlight a disconnect between reported attitudes and observable behavior. Furthermore, respondents are between 29 and 53 percent less likely to engage in informal lending and transfers post-conflict. Given the key role played by social networks in informal financial markets in less-developed countries, these results indicate that even brief civil unrest may have lasting negative consequences.

Author: Claudia Goldin
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674037731
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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This book provides a careful historical analysis of the co-evolution of educational attainment and the wage structure in the United States through the twentieth century. The authors propose that the twentieth century was not only the American Century but also the Human Capital Century. That is, the American educational system is what made America the richest nation in the world. Its educational system had always been less elite than that of most European nations. By 1900 the U.S. had begun to educate its masses at the secondary level, not just in the primary schools that had remarkable success in the nineteenth century. The book argues that technological change, education, and inequality have been involved in a kind of race. During the first eight decades of the twentieth century, the increase of educated workers was higher than the demand for them. This had the effect of boosting income for most people and lowering inequality. However, the reverse has been true since about 1980. This educational slowdown was accompanied by rising inequality. The authors discuss the complex reasons for this, and what might be done to ameliorate it.

Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464813566
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. New ways of production are adopted, markets expand, and societies evolve. But some changes provoke more attention than others, in part due to the vast uncertainty involved in making predictions about the future. The 2019 World Development Report will study how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Technological progress disrupts existing systems. A new social contract is needed to smooth the transition and guard against rising inequality. Significant investments in human capital throughout a person’s lifecycle are vital to this effort. If workers are to stay competitive against machines they need to train or retool existing skills. A social protection system that includes a minimum basic level of protection for workers and citizens can complement new forms of employment. Improved private sector policies to encourage startup activity and competition can help countries compete in the digital age. Governments also need to ensure that firms pay their fair share of taxes, in part to fund this new social contract. The 2019 World Development Report presents an analysis of these issues based upon the available evidence.

Author: David Bloom
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833033735
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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There is long-standing debate on how population growth affects national economies. A new report from Population Matters examines the history of this debate and synthesizes current research on the topic. The authors, led by Harvard economist David Bloom, conclude that population age structure, more than size or growth per se, affects economic development, and that reducing high fertility can create opportunities for economic growth if the right kinds of educational, health, and labor-market policies are in place. The report also examines specific regions of the world and how their differing policy environments have affected the relationship between population change and economic development.

Author:
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821372823
Category : Adaptation (Biology)
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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This first report deals with some of the major development issues confronting the developing countries and explores the relationship of the major trends in the international economy to them. It is designed to help clarify some of the linkages between the international economy and domestic strategies in the developing countries against the background of growing interdependence and increasing complexity in the world economy. It assesses the prospects for progress in accelerating growth and alleviating poverty, and identifies some of the major policy issues which will affect these prospects.

Author: T. J. Hatton
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262083612
Category : Economic history
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Essays by internationally prominent economists examine long run cross-country economic trends from the perspective of New Comparative Economic History, an approach pioneered by Harvard economist Jeffrey G. Williamson. The innovative approach to economic history known as the New Comparative Economic History represents a distinct change in the way that many economic historians view their role, do their work, and interact with the broader economics profession. The New Comparative Economic History reflects a belief that economic processes can best be understood by systematically comparing experiences across time, regions, and, above all, countries. It is motivated by current questions that are not nation specific--the sources of economic growth, the importance of institutions, and the impact of globalization--and focuses on long-run trends rather than short-run ups and downs in economic activity. The essays in this volume offer a New Economic Comparative History perspective on a range of topics and are written in honor of Jeffrey G. Williamson, the most distinguished and influential scholar in the field. The contributors, prominent American and European economists, consider such topics as migration, education, and wage convergence; democracy and protectionism in the nineteenth century; trade and immigration policies in labor-scarce economies; and the effect of institutions on European productivity and jobs.

Author: Robin Cohen
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 552

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Presents perspectives on migration from all of the major social science disciplines, as part of the ongoing attempt to synthesize a general theory of migration. A section on general perspectives contains papers on areas such as a systems approach to a theory of rural-urban migration, political refugees, theories of international immigration, and a general theory of migration in late capitalism. A section on disciplinary perspectives looks at subjects including long- run economic effects of immigration, the formation of new states as a refugee-generating process, and recent European migration. Articles were originally published between 1958 and 1993. No index. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author: Marc Nerlove
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 1483274683
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Household and Economy: Welfare Economics of Endogenous Fertility deals with welfare economics and the socially optimal population size, as well as the social consequences of individual choice with respect to family size within each generation. The general equilibrium implications of endogenous fertility for a number of issues of population policy are discussed. In addition to their own consumption, the number of children and the utility of each child is assumed to enter the utility function of the parents. Comprised of 10 chapters, this volume begins with a review of social welfare criteria for optimal population size and the static theory of optimal population size, optimal population growth with exogenous fertility, and the theory of endogenous fertility. The reader is then introduced to the basic principles of welfare economics and the economics of externalities, followed by a summary of the traditional theory of household behavior. Subsequent chapters focus on optimal population size according to various social welfare criteria; real and potential externalities generated by the endogeneity of fertility; and the principal alternative reason for having children: to transfer resources from the present to support the future consumption of parents in old age. The book concludes by assessing the implications of endogenous fertility for within-generation income distribution policies and reflecting on the directions in which future research may be fruitful. This monograph will be of value to economists, social scientists, students of welfare economics, and those who wish to understand the contribution of economic analysis to an improved understanding of population policy.