Migration and Human Capital in Brazil during the 1990s

Fiess, Norbert M. ; Verner, Dorte

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGED;    AVERAGE INCOME;    BRAIN DRAIN;    CENSUS BUREAU;    CENSUS DATA;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-3093
RP-ID  :  WPS3093

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Nearly 40 percent of all Brazilians havemigrated at one point and time, and in-migrants representsubstantial portions of regional populations. Migration inBrazil has historically been a mechanism for adjustment todisequilibria. Poorer regions and those with fewer economicopportunities have traditionally sent migrants to moreprosperous regions. As such, the southeast region, whereeconomic conditions are most favorable, has historicallyreceived migrants from the northeast region. Migrationshould have benefited both regions. The southeast benefitsby importing skilled and unskilled labor that makes localcapital more productive. The northeast can benefit fromupward pressures on wages and through remittances thatmigrant households return to their region of origin. Thenortheast of Brazil is a net sender of migrants to thesoutheast. In recent years a large number of people movedfrom the southeast to the northeast. Compared with northeastto southeast (NE-SE) migrants, southeast to northeast(SE-NE) migrants are less homogeneous regarding age, wage,and income. SE-NE migrants are on average poorer and lesseducated than the southeast average, while NE-SE migrantsare financially better off and higher educated than thenortheast average. The authors find that the predictedreturns to migration are increasing with education for SE-NEmigrants and decreasing for NE-SE migrants. They furtherobserve that the returns to migration have been decreasingfor NE-SE migrants and increasing for SE-NE migrants between1995 and 1999. This finding helps explain migration dynamicsin Brazil. While the predicted positive returns to migrationfor NE-SE migrants indicate that NE-SE migration follows ingeneral the human capital approach to migration, theestimated lower returns to migration for SE-NE may indicatethat nonmonetary factors also play a role in SE-NE migration.