Iranian Labor Migration to OECD Countries and Economic Factors Affecting it

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Economic, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Shahid Beheshti University

Abstract

Labor is one of the most important factors of production and its migration abroad imposes economic opportunity costs to the society. In this study we have tried to examine economic factors involved in labor migration from Iran during 2002-2012. In this study, the theoretical foundations of the gravity models and estimation method of Panel data have been used for labor migration from Iran to 8 OECD member countries. These countries have the largest share of Iran's labor migration. The esults show that increase in population, foreign trade and economic growth of Iran decrease labor migration. On the other hand the increase in population, foreign trade, economic growth and wages of destination OECD countries, in addition to, the increase in unemployment rate in Iran and accumulation of Iranian immigrants in destination countries increase labor migration. Accordingly, due to the significant and strong impact of unemployment rate and GDP growth of Iran on migration flows, devising plan to improve economic conditions of Iran is necessary to control the upward trend of migration.

Keywords

References

-   Abramovitz, M. (1986). Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind. Journal of Economic History, 46(2), 385-406.
-   Antoni, M. & at al.( 2014). The Migration Flow of Teachers at Tertiary Level with a Focus in Economic Factors. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 156(26), 252-255.
-   Asgari, H. (2009). A New Approach to Brain Drains Determinants and its Effects on Human Capital, Economic Growth and Regional Convergenc among Developing Countries. PhD Dissertation. University of Allameh Tabatabayee (In Persian).
-   Azarbayejani, K.,  Tayyebi, S.K. & Honari, N. (2009). Determinants of the Labor Force Emigration in Iran. Economic Research, 13(40), 59-75 (In Persian).
-   Bang, J. T. & Mitra, A. (2011). Brain Drain and Institutions of Governance: Educational attainment of immigrants to the US 1988– 1998. Economic Systems. 35(3): 335-354.
-   Baumol, W.J., Nelson, R.R. & Wolfe, E.N. (1994). The Convergence of Productivity: Cross National Studies and Historical Eviden, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
-   Beine, M., Docquir, F. & Ozden, C. (2015). Dissecting Network Exterkalities in International Migration. Journal of Demographic Economics, 81, 379-408
-   Beine, M., F. Docquier & Schiff, M. (2006). Brain Drain and its Determinant: A major issue for small states. World Bank, Development Economics. Research Group, paper#3.
-   Borjas, G.J. (1987). Self-Selection and the Earnings of Immigrants. American Economic Review, 77 (4), 531-553.
-   Chiswick, B. (2000). Are Immigrants Favorably Self-Selected?. An Economic Analysis.in Brettell, C. & J. Hollifield (eds), Migration Theory: Talking Across Disciplines. New York: Routledge.
-   CuameaVelazquez, F. (2000). Approaches to the study of international migration: A review. Estudios Fronterizos, 1(1), 137-168.
-   De Haas, H. (2009). Migration and development, A theoretical perspective. International Migration Institute, (IMI), 44(1), 1-41.
-   De Haas, H. (2010). Migration Transitions: a Theoretical and Empirical Inquiry into the Developmental Drivers of International Migration, 26th IUSSP International Population Conference, Session 195: International labour migration: Trends, policies and legal issues, Marrakech, Morocco.
-   Docquier, F. & Marfouk, A. (2006). International Migration by Education Attainment, 1990-2000 ( Release 1.1 ), in Ozden, C. & Schiff, M. (2006). International Migration  Remittances and Development. New York, Palgrave Macmillan. 151–99.
-   Docquir, F & Rapoport, H. (2012). Globalization Brain Drain, and Devolepment. Journal of Economic Literature, 50(3), 681 – 730.
-   Dorigo. G. & Tobler. W. (1983). Push-Pull Migration Lows, Amals of the Association of American Geographers.
-   Fattahi, Sh., Fathollahi, J. & Askari, E. (2016). Socio-cultural factors on economic growth: panel data and clustering approach. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Modelling, 7(2), 49-70 (in Persian).
-   Gallup, J., Sachs, J.D. & Mellinger, A. (1998). Geography and Economic Development. International Regional Science Review,  22(2), 179-232.
-   Griliches, Z. (1988). Productivity Puzzles and R and D: Another no Explanation. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 4(2), 9-21.
-   Hall, R.E. & Jones, C.I. (1997). Levels of Economic Activity Across Countries. American Economic Review, 87(2), 173-177.
-   Hall, R.E. & Jones, C.I. (1999). Whay Do Som Countries Produce So Much More Uutput Per Worker Than Others?. Quarterly Journal of Economic, 114(1), 83-116.
-   Hoxhaj, R., Marchal, L. & Seric, A. (2016). FDI and Migration of Skilled Workers Towards Developing Countries: Firm-Level Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of African Economies, 25, 201-232.

-    Jayet, H. & Marchal, L. (2016). Migration and FDI: Reconciling the standard trade theory with empirical evidence. Economoc Modelling, 59, 46-66

- Kothari, U. (2002). Migration and Chronic Poverty; Institute for Development Policy and Management. Working Paper. No 16.
-   Kugler, M. & H. Rapoport. (2007). International labor and capital flows: Complements or substitutes?. Economics Letters, 94 (2), 155–162.
-   Lee, E. S. (1966). A Theory of Migration. Demography, 3(1), 47-57
-   Marfouk, A. (2007). Africa Brain Drain: Scope and Determinants. Paper Prepared for the Rectors, Vice-Chancellors and Presidents of African Universities Conference on The African Brain Drain - Managing the Drain: Working with the Diaspora. Tripoli (Libya),.
-   Markusen, J.R. & Svensson , L.E.O. (1985). Trade in Goods and Factors with International Difference in Technology. International Economic Review, 26, 92-175.
-   Mayda, A.M. (2005). International Migration:A panel Data Analysis of Economic and Non Economic Determinants. IZA Discussion paper. No 1590.
-   Mottaghi, S. (2015). The impact of economic factors on migration in Iran (Emphasis on income and employment indicators). Journal Management System, 3(11), 63-74 (In Persian).
-   Snowdon, B. & Vane, H. R. (2005). Modern Macroeconomics: Its Origins, Development and current State, Elgar, Cheltenham: UK.
-   Ravenstein, E. G. (1885). The Laws of Migration. Journal of the Statistical Society of London, 48(2), 167-235
-   Stark, O. (1991). The Migration of Labor, Cambridge and Oxford: Blackwell.
-   Stark, O. & Bloom, D. E. (1985). The New Economics of Labor Migration. American Economic Review, 75, 173-78.
-   Taylor, J. (1999). The New Economics of Labor Migration and the role of remittances in the migration process. International Migration, 37(1), 63–88.
-   Temple, J. (1999). The New Growth Evidence. Journal of Economic Literature, 37(1), 112-156
-   Teymur, R., & Morteza, M.M. (2014). Nvestigating the Effect of Migration on Human Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth in Developing Countries (1975-2000). Quarterly journal of: Economic Growth and Development Research, 5(17), 61-74 (In Persian).
-   VanderWaal, J. (2013). Foreign direct investment and international migration to Dutch cities. Urban Studies, 50, 294-311.
-   World Bank. (1997). The State in a Changing World, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
-   World Bank. (2002). Building Institutions for Markets, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
-   Zanowiak, K. (2006). Caring networks of NGOs NGO assistance to undocumented migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border International Migration, Unpublished Manuscript, University of Texas, USA.
-   https://stats.oecd.org/
-   http://databank.worldbank.org/data/database
-   http://www.cbi.ir/
-   http://www.ilo.org/global/statistics-and-databases/research-and databases/kilm/lang--en/index.htm
-   http://databank.worldbank.org/data/databases.aspx?qterm=globalbilateralmigration&pagenumber=1
-   https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=MIG#
Journal of Economics and Modelling
Volume 8, Issue 30 - Serial Number 30
September 2017
Pages 63-94

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics