Unilateral Facilitation Does Not Raise International Labor Migration from the Philippines / Emily Beam, David McKenzie, Dean Yang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beam, Emily.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

McKenzie, David.

Yang, Dean.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w20759.

NBER working paper series no. w20759

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2014.

Summary:

Significant income gains from migrating from poorer to richer countries have motivated unilateral (source-country) policies facilitating labor emigration. However, their effectiveness is unknown. We conducted a large-scale randomized experiment in the Philippines testing the impact of unilaterally facilitating international labor migration. Our most intensive treatment doubled the rate of job offers but had no identifiable effect on international labor migration. Even the highest overseas job-search rate we induced (22%) falls far short of the share initially expressing interest in migrating (34%). We conclude that unilateral migration facilitation will at most induce a trickle, not a flood, of additional emigration.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2014.