Migration, the Quality of the Labour Force and Economic Inequality

Martin Kahanec and Klaus Zimmermann ()

No 3560, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Mobility of workers involves flows of labour, human capital and other production factors and thus contributes to a more efficient allocation of resources. Besides these effects on allocative efficiency, migrant flows affect relative wages and also change the international and national distribution of skills and thereby equality in the receiving society. This paper suggests that skilled immigration promotes economic equality in advanced economies under standard conditions. The context is theoretically explained in a core model and empirically documented using unique data from the WIID database and OECD.

Keywords: ethnicity; inequality; income distribution; minority; human capital; skill allocation; migration; Gini-coefficient (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D33 E25 F22 J15 J61 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2008-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published - substantially revised version published as 'How Skilled Immigration May Improve Economic Equality' in: IZA Journal of Migration, 2014, 3:2.

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Related works:
Working Paper: Migration, the Quality of the Labour Force and Economic Inequality (2008)
Working Paper: Migration, the Quality of the Labour Force and Economic Inequality (2008)
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