International migration with heterogeneous agents

Abstract

"Temporary migration, though empirically relevant, is often ignored in formal models. This paper proposes a migration model with heterogeneous agents and persistent cross country income differentials that features temporary migration. In equilibrium there exists a positive relation between the stock of migrants and the income differential, while the net migration ?ow becomes zero. Consequently, existing empirical migration models, estimating net migration ?ows, instead of stocks, may be misspeci?ed. This suspicion appears to be con?rmed by our investigation of the cointegration relationships of German migration stocks and ?ows since 1967. We ?nd that (i) panel-unit root tests reject the hypothesis that migration ?ows and the explanatory variables are integrated of the same order, while migration stocks and the explanatory variables are all I(1) variables, and (ii) the hypothesis of cointegration cannot be rejected for the stock model." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Brücker, H. & Schröder, P. (2012): International migration with heterogeneous agents. Theory and evidence for Germany, 1967-2009. In: The World Economy, Vol. 35, No. 2, p. 152-182. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9701.2011.01426.x