Does Access to Foreign Markets Shape Internal Migration? : Evidence from Brazil

Hering, Laura ; Paillacar, Rodrigo

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank

关键词: MIGRATION;    ECONOMIC INTEGRATION;    ACCESS TO MARKETS;    WAGES;    JOBS;   

DOI  :  10.1093/wber/lhv028

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper investigates how internal migration is affected by Brazil’s increased integrationinto the world economy.We analyze the impact of regional differences in access to foreigndemand on sector-specific bilateral migration rates between the Brazilian states for theyears 1995 to 2003. Using international trade data, we compute a foreign market accessmeasure at the sectoral level, which is exogenous to domestic migration. A higher foreignmarket access is associated with a higher local labor demand and attracts workers via twopotential channels: higher wages and new job opportunities. Our results show that bothchannels play a significant role in internal migration. Further, we find a heterogeneousimpact across industries, according to their comparative advantage on the world market.However, the observed impact is driven by the strong reaction of low-educated workers tochanges in market access. This finding is consistent with the fact that Brazil is exportingmainly goods that are intensive in unskilled labor.