Cultural biases in migration: Estimating non‐monetary migration costs

Abstract

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Economic effects of differences in dialect

“…The authors also analyze individuals who made multiple moves within a relatively short timeframe. The results show that internal migrants who make a "wrong decision" in their initial move correct this in their second move by demanding much higher wage premiums [3]. These results imply that studies that neglect the psychic costs of migration are likely to overestimate the rate of return to the financial resources migrants allocate to migration.…”

“…added stress, losses to quality of life), which the authors monetize as the wage premium for moving to a culturally different location [3]. Their approach is based on the assumption that living in a culturally unfamiliar environment is equivalent to a consumption dis-amenity (i.e.…”

Long-term relatedness between countries and international migrant selection

“…For example, many cross-border moves have the purpose to reunite with family members. On the cost side, there is a wide range of monetary and non-monetary costs of migration (Falck et al, 2017); e.g., direct costs related to moving people and household goods abroad; indirect or opportunity costs through earnings forgone during the relocation process; and psychological costs resulting from the disutility associated with leaving behind one's family and social networks (Borjas, 1987;Schwartz, 1973;Sjaastad, 1962).…”

“…5 For example, the literature contains studies that use long-term relatedness to explain income differences between countries (Spolaore and Wacziarg, 2009), migration flows (Belot and Ederveen, 2011;Dahl and Sorenson, 2010;Falck et al, 2012Falck et al, , 2017Mayda, 2009), the diffusion of technology (Comin et al, 2012;Spolaore and Wacziarg, 2012), trade patterns (Guiso et al, 2009;Felbermayr and Toubal, 2010), and investment behavior (Guiso et al, 2009). exceed migration costs (Borjas, 1987;Sjaastad, 1962). Benefits and migration costs differ between high-and low-skilled individuals and can be both monetary and non-monetary (Sjaastad, 1962;Schwartz, 1973).…”

“…3 It ignores that the costs and benefits of migration may also be affected by non-economic factors, such as cultural barriers to migration (Bauernschuster et al, 2014;Falck et al, 2012Falck et al, , 2017 or the benefits of living in a culturally different environment (Benson and O'Reilly, 2009a,b). Because policy makers are virtually unable to change these cultural factors, knowing to what extent and how they influence migrant selection is important for the design of labor-market and migration policies.…”