SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

A framework that yields different possible patterns of migration as optimal solutions to a simple utility maximization problem is presented and explored. It is shown that seasonal migration arises as an optimal endogenous response to a comparison of costs (of living and of separation) and returns (to work) over a set of three alternative options, even if a year-long migration is feasible.

International Migration and "Educated Unemployment"

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/7124

This paper provides a novel explanation of "educated unemployment," which is a salient feature of the labor markets in a number of developing countries. In a simple job-search framework we show that "educated unemployment" is caused by the perspective of international migration, that is, by the possibility of a "brain drain." In addition, the analysis shows that a developing country may end up with more educated workers despite the brain drain and educated unemployment.

Work Effort, Moderation in Expulsion, and Illegal Migration

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/7126

Illegal migrants supply a valuable productive input: effort. But their status as illegals means that these migrants face a strictly positive probability of expulsion. A return to their country of origin entails reduced earnings when the wage at origin is lower than the wage at destination. This prospect induces illegal migrants to exert more work effort than comparable workers who face no such prospect. The lower the probable, alternative earnings, the harsher the penalty that illegal migrants will be subjected to upon their return, for a given probability of expulsion, and the higher the level of effort they will exert at destination. While the homecountry wage that awaits the illegal migrants upon their return is exogenous to the host country, the...

Why would some migrants choose to engage in degrading work?

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/7127

This paper develops a model of voluntary migration into degrading work. The essence of the model is a tension between two “bads:” that which arises from being relatively deprived at home, and that which arises from engaging in humiliating work away from home. Balancing between these two “bads” can give rise to an explicit, voluntary choice to engage in humiliating work. The paper identifies conditions under which a migrant will choose to engage in degrading work rather than being forced into it, to work abroad as a prostitute, say, rather than on a farm. The paper delineates the possible equilibria and finds that greater relative deprivation will make it more likely that the equilibrium outcome will be “engagement in prostitution.” It is shown that under...

A Reluctance to Assimilate

Palavras-chave: Migrants; Relative deprivation; Degrading work; Humiliation; Multiple equilibria; Welfare assessment; Policy implications; Labor and Human Capital; Political Economy; F22; J24; J81.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/101648

Quite often, migrants appear to exert little effort to absorb the mainstream culture and to learn the language of their host society, even though the economic returns (increased productivity and enhanced earnings) to assimilation are high. We show that when interpersonal comparisons affect individuals' wellbeing and when a more intensive assimilation results in migrants' comparing themselves more with the richer natives and less with fellow migrants, then the effort extended to assimilate will be muted.

Integration, social distress, and policy formation

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/7125

In search of an evolutionary edge: trading with a few, more, or many

I study the integration of regions in the form of a merger of populations, which I interpret as a revision of people’s social space and their comparison set; I illustrate the way in which a merger can aggravate social distress; and I consider policy responses. Specifically, I view the merger of populations as a merger of income vectors; I measure social distress by aggregate relative deprivation; I demonstrate that a merger increases aggregate relative deprivation; and I show that a social planner is able to reverse this increase by means of least-cost, post-merger increases in individual incomes, but is unable to counter it by relying exclusively on a self-contained income redistribution that retains individual levels of wellbeing at their pre-merger...

Tipo: Working Paper

Palavras-chave: Integration of regions; Merger of populations; Revision of social space; Aggregate relative deprivation; Social distress; Policy responses; Community/Rural/Urban Development; International Relations/Trade; D04; D63; F55; H53; P51.

Ano: 2012

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/120179

Stark, Oded; Behrens, Doris A..

Consider a population of farmers who live around a lake. Each farmer engages in trade with his m adjacent neighbors, where m is termed the "span of interaction." Trade is governed by a prisoner’s dilemma "rule of engagement." A farmer’s payoff is the sum of the payoffs from the m prisoner’s dilemma games played with his m/2 neighbors to the left, and with his m/2 neighbors to the right. When a farmer dies, his son takes over. The son who adheres to his father’s span of interaction decides whether to cooperate or defect by considering the actions taken and the payoffs received by the most prosperous member of the group comprising his father and his father’s m trading partners. Under a conventional structure of payoffs, it is shown that a large span of...

TALES OF MIGRATION WITHOUT WAGE DIFFERENTIALS: INDIVIDUAL, FAMILY, AND COMMUNITY CONTEXTS

Palavras-chave: Local interaction; Span of interaction; Imitation; Cooperation; Social welfare; Farm Management; D83; R12; O4.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/94280

By means of examples that pertain to individual, family,and community contexts, it is shown that migration between locations is compatible with a zero expected net earnings differential between locations. The examples give rise to testable predictions that differ sharply from the predictions that emanate from a standard postulate of earnings differential.

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2003

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/18743

OVERLAPPING

Wang, Yong; Stark, Oded.

We propose a new microeconomic explanation for the divergent experiences of economies in forming human capital. We suggest that the positive effect of a longer life expectancy on human capital formation arises from two separate effects: a life expectancy effect and a prolonged intergenerational overlap effect. We argue that the duration of the overlap between generations and the associated parental support can affect the marginal cost of human capital formation and hence its level: parental support is cheaper than market financing. We thus attribute the strong correlation between the formation of human capital and life expectancy not merely to a higher marginal benefit arising from a longer payback period but also to a lower marginal cost arising from a...

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/18765

Reasons for Remitting

This paper presents a set of reflections on what gives rise to remittances, which constitute a major part of the impact of migration on economic development in the migrants’ own countries. The collage of reasons presented serves to illustrate that remittance behavior is the outcome of an intricate interplay between the preferences and interests of migrants and their families.

Rural-to-Urban Migration, Human Capital, and Agglomeration

Palavras-chave: Reasons for remitting; Consumer/Household Economics; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; D31; F22; F24; J61; O12; O15.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/52800

A new general-equilibrium model that links together rural-to-urban migration, the externality effect of the average level of human capital, and agglomeration economies shows that in developing countries, unrestricted rural-to-urban migration reduces the average income of both rural and urban dwellers in equilibrium. Various measures aimed at curtailing rural-to-urban migration by unskilled workers can lead to a Pareto improvement for both the urban and rural dwellers. In addition, the government can raise social welfare by reducing the migration of skilled workers to the city. Moreover, without a restriction on rural-to-urban migration, a government’s efforts to increase educational expenditure and thereby the number of skilled workers may not increase...

On the Economics of Refugee Flows

Palavras-chave: Community/Rural/Urban Development; Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/7116

Although the phenomenon of refugee flows is not devoid of economic connotations, it has so far been investigated primarily by political scientists and sociologists. The analytical tools of economic inquiry have not yet been applied to this subject, although it stands to reason that such a study will contribute to our understanding of why refugee flows occur and will guide the policy response. This note illustrates how economic analysis can be brought to bear on three key aspects of refugee flows: fear, poverty, and group movement.

The merger of populations, the incidence of marriages, and aggregate unhappiness

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital; Political Economy.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/18757

Stark, Oded; Rendl, Franz; Jakubek, Marcin.

Let a society’s unhappiness be measured by the aggregate of the levels of relative deprivation of its members. When two societies of equal size, F and M, merge, unhappiness in the merged society is shown to be higher than the sum of the levels of unhappiness in the constituent societies when apart; merger alone increases unhappiness. But when societies F and M merge and marriages are formed such that the number of households in the merged society is equal to the number of individuals in one of the constituent societies, unhappiness in the merged society is shown to be lower than the aggregate unhappiness in the two constituent societies when apart. This result obtains regardless of which individuals from one society form households with which individuals...

Gauging the potential for social unrest

Palavras-chave: Merger of populations; Integration of societies; Unhappiness; Marriages; Relative deprivation; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; D0; D10; D31; D63.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/109968

Stark, Oded; Hyll, Walter; Behrens, Doris A..

It stands to reason that social unrest does not erupt out of the blue. Although there are a great many reasons why social dismay might descend into social disorder, only few yardsticks or indices can plausibly be used to gauge the potential for social unrest (PSU). If policy makers want to undertake public action to prevent social dismay escalating into social disruption, they obviously need to draw on practical sensors. This paper assesses critically the adequacy of two such measures, the polarization (P) index, and the total relative deprivation (TRD) index. The paper proposes a tentative guide to selecting between these two measures. A review of three stylized scenarios suggests that, where income redistributions reduce the number of distinct income...

An Evolutionary Edge of Knowing Less (or: On the "Curse" of Global Information)

Palavras-chave: Social dismay; The potential for social unrest; Polarization; Total relative deprivation; Policy choice; Public Economics; D31; D63.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/53721

Stark, Oded; Behrens, Doris A..

Consider a population of farmers who live around a lake. Each farmer engages in trade with his two adjacent neighbors. The trade is governed by a prisoner’s dilemma “rule of engagement.” A farmer’s payoff is the sum of the payoffs from the two prisoner’s dilemma games played with his two neighbors. When a farmer dies, his son takes over. The son decides whether to cooperate or defect by considering the actions taken and the payoffs received by the most prosperous members of the group comprising his own father and a set of his father’s neighbors. The size of this set, which can vary, is termed the “span of information.” It is shown that a larger span of information can be detrimental to the stable coexistence of cooperation and defection, and that in...

On the formation of international migration policies when no country has an exclusive policy-setting say

Palavras-chave: Span of interaction; Span of information; Imitation; Social welfare; Community/Rural/Urban Development; D83; R12; O4.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/49924

Stark, Oded; Casarico, Alessandra; Devillanova, Carlo; Uebelmesser, Silke.

This paper identifies the migration policies that emerge when both the sending country and the receiving country wield power to set migration quotas, when controlling migration is costly, and when the decision how much human capital to acquire depends, among other things, on the migration policies. The paper analyzes the endogenous formation of bilateral agreements in the shape of transfers to support migration controls, and in the shape of joint arrangements regarding the migration policy and the cost-sharing of its implementation. The paper shows that in equilibrium both the sending country and the receiving country can participate in setting the migration policy, that bilateral agreements can arise as a welfare-improving mechanism, and that the sending...

Is population growth conducive to the sustainability of cooperation?

Palavras-chave: Human capital formation; International migration; Migration policies; Welfare analysis; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Labor and Human Capital; F22; I30; J24; J61.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/117431

Stark, Oded; Jakubek, Marcin.

This paper asks whether population growth is conducive to the sustainability of cooperation. A simple model is developed in which farmers who live around a circular lake engage in trade with their adjacent neighbors. The payoffs from this activity are governed by a prisoner’s dilemma “rule of engagement.” Every farmer has one son when the population is not growing, or two sons when it is growing. In the former case, the son takes over the farm when his father dies. In the latter case, one son stays on his father’s farm, whereas the other son settles around another lake, along with the “other” sons of the other farmers. During his childhood, each son observes the strategies and the payoffs of his father and of the trading partners of his father, and...

On the Evolutionary Edge of Migration as an Assortative Mating Device

Palavras-chave: Population growth; Imitation; Sustainability of cooperation; Community/Rural/Urban Development; Farm Management; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Land Economics/Use; Production Economics; Productivity Analysis; C72; D01; D83; J19; J62; R12; R23.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/109965

Stark, Oded; Behrens, Doris A.; Wang, Yong.

Replaced with revised version of paper 02/27/08.

The Prospect of Migration, Sticky Wages, and "Educated Unemployment"

Palavras-chave: Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Labor and Human Capital.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/6316

An increase in the probability of work abroad, where the returns to schooling are higher than at home, induces more individuals in a developing country to acquire education, which leads to an increase in the supply of educated workers in the domestic labor market. Where there is a sticky wage-rate, the demand for labor at home will be constant. With a rising supply and constant demand, the rate of unemployment of educated workers in the domestic labor market will increase. Thus, the prospect of employment abroad causes involuntary “educated unemployment” at home. A government that is concerned about “educated unemployment” and might therefore be expected to encourage unemployed educated people to migrate will nevertheless, under certain conditions, elect...

A Theory of Migration as a Response to Occupational Stigma

Palavras-chave: Labor and Human Capital; E24; F22; J24; O15.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/98572

Drawing on the literature of occupational status and social distance, a theory is developed of labor migration that is prompted by a desire to avoid “social humiliation.” A closed-economy general equilibrium model that incorporates occupational status and examines the interaction between the goods market and the labor market is constructed. This framework is then extended from a closed, single economy to an open economy setting in a world that consists of two countries or two regions. It is shown that as long as migration can reduce humiliation sufficiently, migration will occur even between two identical economies. Hence, a new model of migration is presented in which migration arises from a wish to reap social exposure gains. The model shows that...