Essays on migration

Xie, Xiaoying

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/88194 Copy

Description

Title

Essays on migration

Author(s)

Xie, Xiaoying

Issue Date

2015-07-15

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Lubotsky, Darren H.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Lubotsky, Darren H.

Committee Member(s)

• McMillen, Daniel P.
• Albouy, David
• Deryugina, Tatyana

Department of Study

Economics

Discipline

Economics

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• migration
• education
• Instrumental Variable
• compulsory schooling laws
• quantile regression
• housing price
• immigrants

Abstract

Migration is one of the main forces shaping our society as we know it. Focusing on the determinants of migration and its influence on local communities, this dissertation consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to the thesis, covering the motivation for the research, the methodologies used, and policy implications. Chapter 2 estimates the impact of education on two key outcomes: migration probability and distance. Migration greatly affects the regional economy, and hence, the out-migration of highly educated workers has raised serious concerns for regional development. The OLS estimator indicates a small but positive effect of education on both outcomes, which is similar to other studies. However, using compulsory schooling law changes as an instrumental variable, the 2SLS estimator suggests that education increases migration distance but decreases the probability to migrate. To guide the analysis, this paper expands the basic migration model to include distance as another element in people's decisions. The intuition is that by searching broader distances, people could obtain higher expected incomes, but must also pay higher costs. The overall effect of education on migration is determined by the trade-off between the cost and benefits of migrating longer distances. Chapter 3 estimates the influence of immigration on local housing prices. Housing price is crucial to people's well-being, as it not only affects their living conditions, but also affects homeowners' investment values. Both the OLS and 2SLS results suggest that on average immigration has a slight positive effect on housing prices. However, if we use quantile regression, we observe quite significant but heterogeneous effects of different neighborhoods. For census tracts with expensive housing, immigrants increase housing prices. For census tracts with cheap housing, immigrants reduce housing prices. Lower housing prices make housing more affordable for tenants, but reduces homeowners' total wealth. We also look at possible sources of heterogeneity from both the supply side and demand side. In poor neighborhoods, for example, immigrants might drive natives to neighborhoods with better amenities while increasing housing supply in the area, hence reducing housing prices.

Graduation Semester

2015-8

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88194

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2015 Xiaoying Xie

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