Distortions in the International Migrant Labor Market : Evidence from Filipino Migration and Wage Responses to Destination Country Economic Shocks

We use an original panel dataset of migrant departures from the Philippines to identify the responsiveness of migrant numbers and wages to GDP shocks in destination countries. We find a large, significant response of migrant numbers to GDP shocks at destination, but no significant wage response. Thi...

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Main Authors:	McKenzie, David, Theoharides, Caroline, Yang, Dean
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	American Economic Association 2014
Subjects:	international migration wage level and structure wage differentials wages, compensation, and labor costs public policy geographic labor mobility immigrant workers economic development human resources human development income distribution migration
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17922

id	okr-10986-17922
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-179222021-04-23T14:03:41Z Distortions in the International Migrant Labor Market : Evidence from Filipino Migration and Wage Responses to Destination Country Economic Shocks McKenzie, David Theoharides, Caroline Yang, Dean international migration wage level and structure wage differentials wages, compensation, and labor costs public policy geographic labor mobility immigrant workers economic development human resources human development income distribution migration We use an original panel dataset of migrant departures from the Philippines to identify the responsiveness of migrant numbers and wages to GDP shocks in destination countries. We find a large, significant response of migrant numbers to GDP shocks at destination, but no significant wage response. This is consistent with binding minimum wages for migrant labor. This result implies that labor market imperfections that make international migration attractive also make migrant flows more sensitive to global business cycles. Difference-in-differences analysis of a minimum wage change for maids confirms that minimum wages bind and demand is price sensitive without these distortions. 2014-04-21T16:41:37Z 2014-04-21T16:41:37Z 2014-04 Journal Article American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 1945-7782 10.1257/app.6.2.49 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17922 en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo American Economic Association American Economic Association Publications & Research :: Journal Article Philippines
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	international migration wage level and structure wage differentials wages, compensation, and labor costs public policy geographic labor mobility immigrant workers economic development human resources human development income distribution migration
spellingShingle	international migration wage level and structure wage differentials wages, compensation, and labor costs public policy geographic labor mobility immigrant workers economic development human resources human development income distribution migration McKenzie, David Theoharides, Caroline Yang, Dean Distortions in the International Migrant Labor Market : Evidence from Filipino Migration and Wage Responses to Destination Country Economic Shocks
geographic_facet	Philippines
description	We use an original panel dataset of migrant departures from the Philippines to identify the responsiveness of migrant numbers and wages to GDP shocks in destination countries. We find a large, significant response of migrant numbers to GDP shocks at destination, but no significant wage response. This is consistent with binding minimum wages for migrant labor. This result implies that labor market imperfections that make international migration attractive also make migrant flows more sensitive to global business cycles. Difference-in-differences analysis of a minimum wage change for maids confirms that minimum wages bind and demand is price sensitive without these distortions.
format	Journal Article
author	McKenzie, David Theoharides, Caroline Yang, Dean
author_facet	McKenzie, David Theoharides, Caroline Yang, Dean
author_sort	McKenzie, David
title	Distortions in the International Migrant Labor Market : Evidence from Filipino Migration and Wage Responses to Destination Country Economic Shocks
title_short	Distortions in the International Migrant Labor Market : Evidence from Filipino Migration and Wage Responses to Destination Country Economic Shocks
title_full	Distortions in the International Migrant Labor Market : Evidence from Filipino Migration and Wage Responses to Destination Country Economic Shocks
title_fullStr	Distortions in the International Migrant Labor Market : Evidence from Filipino Migration and Wage Responses to Destination Country Economic Shocks
title_full_unstemmed	Distortions in the International Migrant Labor Market : Evidence from Filipino Migration and Wage Responses to Destination Country Economic Shocks
title_sort	distortions in the international migrant labor market : evidence from filipino migration and wage responses to destination country economic shocks
publisher	American Economic Association
publishDate	2014
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17922
_version_	1764438700302794752

Distortions in the International Migrant Labor Market : Evidence from Filipino Migration and Wage Responses to Destination Country Economic Shocks

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