Emigration and the distribution of income per natural: evidence from Egypt
We study the impact of emigration on income distribution of Egyptian households, using longitudinal data covering 1998–2012. Controlling for selection of migrants and work participation of non-migrants, we find that remittances tend to increase income inequality at origin. However taking into account income earned abroad by migrants, adjusted for PPP differences, yields larger gains from migration and a negative impact on inequality of ‘income per natural’. We study the dependence of this effect with the saving share of migrants’ earnings. Positive selection of migrants tends to make migration inequality-increasing, while low transferability of skills in destination countries, primarily in the Gulf region, has the opposite effect. We argue that a focus on remittances is too restrictive to account for the whole benefits of migration to origin households, when transfer costs are high. We confirm this with household panel regressions showing that migration episodes have a significant and large impact in the medium-term on household permanent income, controlling for pre-departure characteristics. The medium-term benefits from migration have an inequality-reducing effect in particular in rural areas.
Date: 4 May 2016, 13:00 (Wednesday, 2nd week, Trinity 2016)
Venue: Queen Elizabeth House, 3 Mansfield Road OX1 3TB
Venue Details: Seminar Room 2
Speaker: Joachim Jarreau (University of Paris-Dauphine)
Organising department: Oxford Department of International Development
Organisers: Robtel Neajai Pailey, Yasser Moullan, Jenny Peebles (University of Oxford, Oxford Dept of International Development)
Organiser contact email address: imi@qeh.ox.ac.uk
Host: International Migration Institute (University of Oxford)
Part of: International Migration Institute Seminar Series
Topics:
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editor: Jenny Peebles