Migration as an adjustment mechanism in the crisis?

A comparison of Europe and the United States 2006–2016

authored by

Julia Jauer, Thomas Liebig, John P. Martin, Patrick A. Puhani

Abstract

We estimate whether migration can be an equilibrating force in the labour market by comparing pre- and post-crisis migration movements at the regional level in both Europe and the United States, and their association with asymmetric labour market shocks. Based on fixed-effects regressions using regional panel data, we find that Europe’s migratory response to unemployment shocks was almost identical to that recorded in the United States after the crisis. Our estimates suggest that, if all measured population changes in Europe were due to migration for employment purposes—i.e. an upper-bound estimate—up to about a quarter of the asymmetric labour market shock would be absorbed by migration within a year. However, in Europe and especially in the Eurozone, the reaction to a very large extent stems from migration of recent EU accession country citizens as well as of third-country nationals.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Labour Economics

External Organisation(s)

Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS)
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD
University College Dublin

Type

Article

Journal

Journal of population economics

Volume

32

Pages

1-22

No. of pages

22

ISSN

0933-1433

Publication date

01.2019

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Demography, Economics and Econometrics

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth

Electronic version(s)

http://hdl.handle.net/10419/93367 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-018-0716-x (Access: Closed)