The size of the cliff at the border Articles uri icon

publication date

  • March 2015

start page

  • 1

end page

  • 6

volume

  • 51

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0166-0462

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1879-2308

abstract

  • The scale of international migration flows depends on moving costs that are, in turn, influenced by host-country policies. This paper shows how to estimate the influence of policies upon bilateral migration flows to multiple destinations. We rely on a Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimator to derive estimates that are consistent
    under more general distributional assumptions on the underlying RUM model than the ones commonly adopted
    in the literature. We derive bounds for the estimated direct and indirect effects of migration policies that reflect
    the uncertainty connected to the use of aggregate data, and we show that bilateral migration flows can be highly
    sensitive to the immigration policies set by other destination countries, an externality that we are able to quantify

subjects

  • Economics

keywords

  • international migration; migration policies; visa policies; multiple destinations; externalities