Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35957 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4736
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Using data from a large-scale survey of employees in Ireland, we estimate the extent to which people who have emigrated from Ireland and returned earn more relative to comparable people who have never lived abroad. In so doing, we are testing the hypothesis that migration can be part of a process of human capital formation. We find through OLS estimation that returners earn 7 percent more than comparable stayers. We test for the presence of self-selection bias in this estimate but the tests suggest that the premium is related to returner status. The premium holds for both genders, is higher for people with post-graduate degrees and for people who migrated beyond the EU to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The results show how emigration can be positive for a source country when viewed in a longer term context.
Subjects: 
Return migration
Ireland
brain drain
brain circulation
JEL: 
J61
O15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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