Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Miguel Flores
Author-Person: pfl108
Author-Name: Alexander Patt
Author-Name: Jens Ruhose
Author-Name: Simon Wiederhold
Title: International Emigrant Selection on Occupational Skills
Abstract: We present the first evidence that international emigrant selection on education and earnings materializes through occupational skills. Combining novel data from a representative Mexican task survey with rich individual-level worker data, we find that Mexican migrants to the United States have higher manual skills and lower cognitive skills than non-migrants. Conditional on occupational skills, education and earnings no longer predict migration decisions. Differential labor-market returns to occupational skills explain the observed selection pattern and significantly outperform previously used returns-to-skills measures in predicting migration. Results are persistent over time and hold within narrowly defined regional, sectoral, and occupational labor markets.
Creation-Date: 2017-06
Classification-JEL: F22, O15, J61, J24
Keywords: occupational skills, emigrant selection
Number: 100
Handle: RePEc:glh:wpfacu:100
File-Url: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/files/growthlab/files/emigrant_selection_cidwp84.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf