Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/33442 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 2049
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
International migration is characterized by two puzzling facts: First, only a small share of the population tends to migrate although substantial and persisting income differences across countries exist. Second, net migration rates tend to cease over time despite persisting income differences. This paper addresses these issues in a migration model with heterogeneous agents that features temporary migration. In equilibrium a positive relation exists between the stock of migrants and the income differential, while the net migration flow becomes zero. Consequently, existing empirical migration models, estimating net migration flows instead of stocks, may be misspecified. This suspicion appears to be confirmed by our empirical investigation of the cointegration relationships of German migration stocks and flows since 1967. We find that (i) panel-unit root tests reject the hypothesis that migration flows and the explanatory variables are integrated of the same order, while migration stocks and the explanatory variables are all I(1) variables, and (ii) the hypothesis of cointegration cannot be rejected for the stock model.
Subjects: 
international migration
temporary migration
panel cointegration
JEL: 
F22
C23
C53
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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