DDRIE: Emigration: A Blessing or a Curse: Empirical Evidence

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

While economists know a lot about the socio-economic effects of international migration on the destination countries, the long-term impact of migration on source countries remains unclear and difficult to measure due to data limitation and selection issues. Because only the most able and entrepreneurial migrate, there are economic losses to countries of origin. On the other hand, migrants may send remittances and may return to their home countries with new skills that boosts economic development. This research project will use a unique archival data on international migration merged with data on contemporary economic conditions in source countries and innovative methodology to study the effects of international migration on source countries. The unique historical data, combined with the innovative research methods will allow the researchers to overcome the selection problems in the studies of migration. The results of this research project provide a better understanding of the benefits of international migration to both source and destination countries. The results will also inform migration policies in both source and destination countries. This DDRIE uses a combination of local level historical and contemporary data to study the effects of international emigration on source regions. To construct the independent variable, the researchers will collect and digitize individual conscripted soldier files containing detailed information such as their place of birth, year of birth, station of deployment and regiment of assignment, for each soldier who ever served in the army from archival sources. The research measures economic development at the local level using census data, satellite data and the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). Preliminary results suggest that conditional on the total number of soldiers enlisted in the army, the number of soldiers who were conscripted is strongly positively correlated with the several measures of current economic development and high emigration rates from source regions. The results of this research project will provide a better understanding of the mechanisms through which international migration occur as well as the benefits of such migration to both source and destination countries. The results will also inform migration policies in both source and destination countries. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.