Abstract
This paper studies outcomes for workers moving from a poor to a rich economy employing a job tasks based approach. It uses a data case, whereby a worker could decide to work in a richer economy and place himself there by a daily or weekly commute. This set-up faciliates the disentanglement of income differences motives from a plethora of other motives. Thus it eschews the bias inherent in many studies. The paper emphasizes the idea that tasks are tied to locations, and workers choose a location-task-wage ‘pack.’ The task demanded, which is a bundle of skills, constrains human capital returns for movers. Relatively low task returns generate a substantial offset to the productivity gain for migrants, stemming from the rich economy having higher TFP and capital.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 102032 |
Journal | Labour Economics |
Volume | 72 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2021 |
Keywords
- Human capital differences
- Location-task-wage bundle
- Migrant tasks
- Movers and stayers
- Pure income effects
- Rich and poor economies
- Self-selection
- TFP differentials
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Economics and Econometrics
- Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management