Selection or Network Effects? Migration Flows into 27 OECD Countries, 1990-2000

By Peder J. Pedersen, Mariola Pytlíková, Nina Smith. Social Science Research Network, 2004

146 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Recent migration patterns show growing migration pressure and changing composition of immigrants in many Western countries. During the latest decade, an increasing proportion of the OECD immigrants have been from poor countries, where the educational level of the population is low. The migration patterns may be affected by the relatively generous welfare schemes in most OECD countries, but also network effects and migration policy changes may be important factors behind the observed development. This paper presents empirical evidence on immigration flows into 27 OECD countries during a period of 11 years, 1990–2000. Using a panel data model, we analyze the determinants of the migration flows. Our results indicate that traditional factors as cultural and linguistic distance are important. Network effects are also strong, but vary between source and destination countries. We do not find clear evidence that selection effects have had a major influence on the observed migration patterns until now. This may partly be explained by restrictive migration policies in many OECD countries which may have dampened the potential selection effects.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Political Science and International Relations, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bcc0aa9ad9b7656c5c2a26f26d350735fde50a05

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Citations in the corpus

International migration: a panel data analysis of the determinants of bilateral flows (2010, unknown): “…size of the effect is smaller 2Since I began working on this paper, I have become aware of other related, but independent papers analyzing cross-country migration patterns: Alvarez-Plata, Brücker, and Siliverstovs (2003), Pedersen, Pytlikova, and Smith (2004), Pedersen, Pytlikova, and Smith (2006).”
An empirical study on the determinants of international student mobility: a global perspective (2012, background): “One reason is that international trade as a bridge of commercial exchange between outflow countries and inflow countries facilitates talent flow by indirectly lowering the flow costs (Pederson et al. 2004).”
Income Maximization and the Selection and Sorting of International Migrants (2011, unknown): “Recent literature suggests that economic and social networks between industrialized countries and their former colonies contribute to bilateral migration flows, much in the way such networks also appear to contribute to bilateral trade (Pedersen et al., 2004; Mayda, 2010).”
International Migration and the Developing World (2010, background): “See, for example, Borjas (1987), Karemera et al. (2000), Volger and Rotte (2000), Hatton and Williamson (2002), Pedersen et al. (2004); and Gallardo-Sejas, Pareja, Llorca-Vivero, and MartinezSerrano (2006).”
Fear, Unemployment and Migration (2009, unknown): “However, Pedersen et al. (2004) studied migration flows into 27 OECD countries from 1990–2000 and found that network effects, measured as the coefficient of the stock of immigrants of own national background already resident in a country, had a large positive impact on immigration flows.”