Costanza Biavaschi on taking the skill bias out of global migration

Costanza Biavaschi will present at the WIDER Seminar Series on 6 February 2019. 

Abstract – Taking the skill bias out of global migration

Global migration is heavily skill-biased, with tertiary-educated workers being four times more likely to migrate than workers with a lower education. In this paper, we quantify the global impact of this skill bias in migration. Based on a quantitative multi-country model with trade, remittances and human capital externalities, we compare the current world to a counterfactual with the same number of migrants, where all migrants are neutrally selected from their countries of origin. The skill bias in migration increases welfare in virtually all OECD countries, while the effects on non-OECD countries are more subtle. They are negative in many countries but positive in countries where migration-based externalities are strong. We find the global effect of the skill-bias to be unambiguously positive.

Taking the Skill Bias out of Global Migration by Costanza Biavaschi, Michal Burzynski, Benjamin Elsner and Joël Machadoy

About the speaker

Costanza Biavaschi is an Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway), a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Helsinki and a Research Fellow at IZA - Institute of Labor Economics. She received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University in October 2011.

Her research interests are in labor economics, broadly defined to include forays into econometrics and economic history. Within labor economics, she have worked on one core area: the economics of migration. Her work emphasizes the importance of understanding selectivity in migration when assessing the consequences of international labor mobility on the sending and receiving regions. In addition, she has worked on topics such as immigrant cultural and political integration.

WIDER Seminar Series

The WIDER Seminar Series showcases recent and ongoing work on key topics in development economics. The weekly sessions held in Helsinki are open to local and visiting researchers, policy makers, and others interested in development topics. Click here to learn more.

Seminars will be live streamed on Facebook and recordings and presentations will be available after the event here.

For more information email richardson@wider.unu.edu