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Past ARC Conventions at IRES

Sustainability

(ARC Convention 09/14-018)

Five year interdisciplinary project on issues of sustainability starting October 1, 2009. Topics to be investigated include specific issues relevant to intergenerational justice, sustainability criteria and Pontryagin optimality, optimal population size, population composition and dynamics, population policy, the problem of short-termism, the choice by firms of sustainable technology.

Objectives – The concept of sustainability is everywhere. Yet, the analytical questions it raises are far from settled. This is true of course in the natural sciences. It is equally so in other disciplines such as economics or philosophy. Consider the question ‘Are we consuming too much?’ raised by a group of economists led by Nobel Prize winner K. Arrow. While consumption per head is rising in the West, how should we factor in the depletion of our natural resources as well as the growth of the world population? Extensive conceptual work is required – including on technological and demographic aspects - if we are to move beyond principles such as Brundtland’s view that sustainable development is characterized by the fact that ‘…[it] meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.

Promoters: Raouf Boucekkine, David de la Croix (coordinator), Axel Gosseries.

For more details, click here

 

Geographical mobility of factors 

(ARC Convention 09/14-019) 

Five year interdisciplinary project on issues of geographical mobility of factors starting September 1, 2009. Topics to be investigated include determinants of factor mobility, interdependencies with public policies and economic performances, analysis of mobility at various geographic scales.

Objectives – Recent increases in trade and capital flows, foreign direct investments and labor mobility have intensified the integration of national and regional economies, and strengthened the competition between them for both better and worse. At the international or intra-national levels, economies with high skill endowments keep on attracting scarce factors, generating generous return rates and increasing their supremacy. The polarization of economic activities and the concentration of scarce factors (such as knowledge and skills) are shaping both the world and the internal evolution of countries. Through five connected axes, the purpose of this project is to enhance the understanding of the determinants of factor mobility and the interdependencies between factor mobility, public policies and economic performance. Axes 1 and 2 belong to the literature on the determinants of international factor mobility. The novelty of our approach is that it is based on new and unique databases on workers’ and firms’ mobility. In axes 3 to 5, we build bridges between different strands of literature to characterize the joint determination of factor mobility, economic performances and institutions (including public policies, norms, social capital, etc.).

Promoters: Frédéric Docquier (coordinator), Henri Sneessens, Jacques Thisse, Hylke Vandenbussche, Bruno Van der Linden.

More details can be found by clicking on the following links:

I. Summary of the ARC output
II. Description of the five axes

III. List of publictions
IV. Traning
V. Events

I Summary of the ARC outputs

 

  2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 forthc. Unpub Total
Papers - Axis 1 2 1 2 1 0 1 2 2 11
Papers - Axis 2 3 5 2 1 4 4 1 5 25
Papers - Axis 3 0 1 3 5 2 3 2 11 27
Papers - Axis 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 8 9
Papers - Axis 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3
Papers  - All axes 5 7 7 7 6 8 6 29 75
PhD's - funded 0 1 1 0 1 2 1 - 6
PhD's - non funded  0 1  0 1  1 3 5 - 11
Postdoc - funded  0 0  0 1 1 1 - - 3
Postdoc - non funded 0 0 2 1 0  0 - - 3
Seminars 5 7  10 7 11 5  -  - 45
Research visits at UCL 0 0 1 2 2 0  -  -  5
Int'l conferences 0 0 1  0  0 2  -  -  3

 

II. Description of the five axes

Axis 1: Dynamics of migrants’ diasporas

Axis 1 focused on the determinants of international labor mobility. The dynamics of migrants’ diasporas (defined as the stock of people born in a country i and living in another country j) is the outcome of a complex combination of self-selection (i.e. endogenous decisions of heterogeneous individuals to leave their country) and out-selection mechanisms (i.e. host-country decisions to accept immigrants, reflected in their immigration policies). How do characteristics of existing diasporas (size, education level, gender structure) affect the size and structure of current migration flows? How do existing diasporas impact on the effectiveness of immigration policy reforms? In particular, would more selective immigration policies generate important effects on the structure of EU immigration flows? In this axis, we improved existing databases on the size and structure of bilateral migration flows. For the first time, we developed comprehensive database on migration stocks by education and gender covering about 40,000 corridors (200 countries of origin and destination). We coupled our databases with new data on the desired migration (i.e. people who would like to emigrated but have not yet done it). We used these data sets to analyze the determinants of migration, to quantify and disentangle diaspora externalities. As for the methods, we collected and harmonized a large number of isolated data, and used empirical techniques to identify the determinants of migration.

Our scientific activities under Axis 1 involved two early-stage researchers funded by ARC (A. Kayaoglu, S. Salomone), one non-funded early-stage researcher (A. Ariu), one post-doc researchers funded by ARC (I. Ruyssen), and ten external collaborators (E. Artuc, M. Beine, L. Lowell, A. Marfouk, C. Ozden, C. Parsons, G. Peri, H. Rapoport, K. Sekkat, M.P. Squicciarini). Our main findings under Axis 1 can be classified in three categories:

  • A first set of papers, written during the first two years, presents new database documenting the size and structure of international migration flows. In 2009, we built on our previous databases on migration stocks to OECD countries, updated the data using new sources, standardized 1990 and 2000 categories, and introduced the gender breakdown. For the first time, we developed new data on stocks and rates of emigration by level of schooling and by gender. The same year, we complemented the literature through three case studies on very different regional and professional contexts: the African medical brain drain, the exodus of European researchers to the United States, and the contribution of the Indian diaspora to the rise of the IT sector in India. More importantly, we developed a new dataset of international bilateral migration stocks by gender and education level, which includes both OECD and non-OECD countries as destinations in 1990 and 2000. Census data were available for a large number of developing countries. For the sake of comprehensiveness, we used pseudo-gravity model regressions to impute missing values where data are unavailable, such that we are able to provide, for the first time, a global assessment of human capital mobility. The comprehensiveness of the resulting matrices facilitates a more nuanced definition of emigration rates based on the concept of the natural labor force, which additionally considers both entries and exits of workers. Although the paper is still forthcoming in an academic journal, this project was initiated as early as in 2009 and was used in several studies under Axes 1, 3 and 5.
  • Second, we produced several papers looking at the determinants of migration flows and quantifying the size of diaspora externalities (i.e. effect of existing network on new flows). We found that diasporas increase migration flows and lower their average educational level. Interestingly, diasporas explain majority of the variability of migration flows and selection. This suggests that, without changing the generosity of family reunion programs, education-based selection rules are likely to have moderate impact. Availability of new data by gender enabled us to identify the factors influencing the gender composition of migration. We found that network effects vary by education level but not by gender. In two recent works in progress, we investigated the role of governance quality on bilateral migration flows, and disentangled diaspora externalities into its two components: the effect on private assimilation costs (self-selection channel) and the effect on legal entry barriers through family reunification programs (immigration policy channel). Another paper by Kayaoglu quantified the effect of the state of emergency (i.e. military presence of Turkish soldiers in Eastern and South-Eastern regions of Turkey) on economic performance and migration out of the region.
  • Third and more recently, we obtained access to a large-scale database on willingness to emigrate (the Gallup world poll survey). We analyzed empirically what country-specific and bilateral factors determine the size (and composition between education groups) of the pool of potential migrants. The latter is defined as those who have revealed being willing to migrate by positively answering the question “Ideally, if you had the opportunity, would you like to move permanently or temporarily to another country, or would you prefer to continue living in this country?”. Most of them have, then, indicated a preferred country in the follow-up question “To which country would you like to move?”. In the second step, we analyzed how these potential migrants combine with factors determining migration opportunities and generate actual migration flows. We found that the size of the network of previous migrants and the average income per person at destination are crucial determinants of the size of the pool of potential migrants. Economic growth in the destination country, on the other hand, is the main economic generator of migration opportunities for a given pool of potential migrants. We also found that college educated exhibit greater actual emigration rates mainly because of better chances in realizing their immigration potentials, rather than because of higher willingness to migrate. The new data on desired migration were abundantly used in Axis 3.



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Axis 2: Mobility and dynamics of firms

Axis 2 focused on globalization and the determinants of firms’ internationalization and mobility. The amount of exports and worldwide Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has risen spectacularly in the last decades. This has triggered substantial efforts to integrate the increase in firm’ internationalization into the neo-classical theory of international trade. In this axis, we aimed to make both theoretical and empirical contributions in this direction. Theoretically, we aimed to modify existing trade models to rationalize findings in the data that cannot be explained by existing trade models. We identified new determinants of trade in the theory and find convincing empirical evidence for them. The latest trade theories explains firm-level trade mainly through firm-level productivity. These models argue that only firms with high enough productivity can engage in exporting and in FDI. But this supply-side explanation of trade, while important, is unlikely to capture all the features of the data. In this axis, we developed models that explore the importance of demand-side trade determinants. We allowed firms to differ in the quality they export and allow consumers within a country and across countries to be heterogeneous in their taste for products. Quality and taste differences across products are a powerful source of exports, but thus far could not be disentangled clearly in the theory. We presented new models that clearly separate quality from taste effects with clear predictions on how export prices and quantities are affected by both. We collaborated with the National Bank of Belgium and used firm-level data to test our new theory and find that quality and taste are important determinants of firm-level exporting. We also used this data to explore the phenomenon of “carry-along trade” where we showed that firms often export products that they do not produce. The existence of substantial “carry-along trade” in the data goes against the maintained assumption in the theory that firms only export what they produce. Lastly, we also explored the multi-product nature of firms. We showed that the large majority of Belgian exporters are multi-product firms. Again this evidence is in strong contrast with the mainstream assumption in trade models that firms are single-product firms. The empirical evidence that we provided, seriously questions this assumption which opens a whole range of new issues that will need to be tackled in the presence of multi-product exporting firms.

The scientific activities under Axis 2 involved the work by six researchers supported by financial means of ARC. Most of them obtained their PhD (F. Di Comité, E. Forlani, A. Khatibi, L. Rovegno, A. Sissokko, C. Viegelahn) and another student is still under way (S. Blanas). Our activities involved one postdoc non-funded researcher (J. Martin) and thirteen external collaborators (C. Altomonte, A. Bernard, E. Blanchard, J. Hartigan, K. Miyagiwa, S. Poncet, H. Song, T. Sono, W. Steingress, J. Konings, I. Van Beveren, J. Wauters, M. Zanardi). Several published papers have been turned into non-technical summaries and published on the global internet forum VOX. Our main findings can be summarized as follows:

  • In a first set of papers we showed that existing trade models are not well suited to explain all the variation in firm-level exporters data. Thus we showed that the firm-level cost side and productivity can at best only offer a partial explanation of exporter performance success. We argue that the missing source of variation must come from the demand side. We developed a new theoretical framework that incorporates important features of demand side aspects, i.e. quality and taste differences between firms and products.
  • In a second set of papers, we showed another weakness of existing trade models. In those models, it is assumed that firms only export one product i.e. firms are single-product firms. However, our own empirical findings showed that for Belgian data this assumption is violated. Most Belgian exporters are multi-product firms. The multi-product nature of firms brings about a whole range of new issues that now have to be taken into account in trade models (cannibalization issues, demand complementarity in exports etc). Thus we showed that existing models of firms’ exports need to be about multi-product firms. We developed a new model of multi-product firms that can account for cannibalization and demand complementarities and showed that this model is able to explain some additional features of the data that existing models cannot capture.
  • In a third set of papers, we questioned a third important assumption of existing trade models, i.e. that firms only export products that they actually produce. However, in the data we found evidence that many firms export products that they do not make themselves. We coined this observation as “carry-along trade”. We developed a model that can explain carry-along products, i.e. product that firms purchase from other domestic suppliers to export jointly with their main products that they produce in house. The underlying determinants of carry-along trade can be found both on the supply-side where rising costs imply that some products are better outsourced, but we also showed that complementarity in demand on the consumers’ side incentivize firms to export both types of products.
  • In a final set of papers, we explored various features of firm internationalization. We measured quality in exports and we looked into the importance of access to finance for exporting firms.

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Axis 3: Brain drain, growth and economic policies

Axis 3 focused on the links between migration and economic performance. Although the recent literature suggests that migration generates positive spillover effects on countries of origin, many economists see it as a curse for the developing world because it is skill-biased (or of a brain-drain nature). Nevertheless, even in this pessimistic context, it is crucial to clarify how causatin operates. Does high-skilled emigration cause poverty or does poverty induce emigration? Many studies suggest that both links are operating simultaneously. However, in the recent brain drain literature, the analysis of these two causal links has given rise to two separate strands. In this axis, we refined the analysis of the consequences of migration for sending and receiving countries, and built bridges between the various strands using unified models and examining the complex interactions between emigration decisions and economic performance in origin and destination countries. As far as the methodologically is concerned, we combined empirical methods and quantitative theory. The latter consists of stylized models calibrated to match current or historical observations, and then simulated under alternative policy scenarios.

Our scientific activities under Axis 3 involved four early-stage researchers funded by ARC (A. Kayaoglu, J-F. Maystadt, S. Salomone, C. Vasilakis), four non-funded early-stage researchers (A. Aubry, M. Burzynski, M. Delogu, J. Machado), two post-doc researchers funded by ARC (A. Jakobbson, I. Ruyssen), two non-funded postdoc researchers (M. Mercier, S. Salomone), and seventeen external collaborators (M. Beine, A. Bhargava, C. Defoort, D. de la Croix, A. Kaya, M. Le Goff, E. Lodigiani, L. Marchiori, Y. Moullan, C. Ozden, G. Peri, L. Ragot, H. Rapoport, K. Sekkat, M. Schiff, I. Shen, P. Verwimp). Our main findings can be classified in four categories:

  • In a first set of papers, written in 2010 and 2011, we empirically confirmed the existence of significant links between skill-biased migration prospects and human capital formation. Compared to the existing literature, we used alternative specifications, databases (including panel data) and estimation techniques. We took advantage of the new databases on the size and structure of migration developed under Axis 1.
  • A second set of papers sheds light on the implications of emigration (of low-skilled workers, high-skilled workers, physicians, refugees) for sending countries. Our quantitative models account for effects on wages and employment, fertility and education, productivity, health, remittances, probability of a military conflict. We also examined the behavioral effect of emigration through transfers of norms (fertility or political norms) and quantified diaspora externalities (effect of migration network on trade and investment costs).
  • A third set of papers investigates the implications of immigration for receiving countries. We focused on the labor market, fiscal, productivity and market size effects of immigration. The use of quantitative models enabled us to quantify the welfare impact of immigration and to identify the relative contribution of each channel of transmission. In addition, some of our interdisciplinary contributions examined the effect of refugees’ migration and the social integration of immigrants.
  • And finally, the interactions between migration and economic performance was studied in new integrated models, highlighting the possibility of multiple equilibria in emigration and poverty outcomes. We showed that this is an issue for small island developing countries which, for this reason, require appropriate policies. In the recent months, we obtained the permission to use a unique database on the willingness to emigrate. This database covers almost all the countries of the world. We used it to disentangle migration costs into its private and legal components. On this basis, we revisited the literature on the efficiency and inequality effects of a further liberalization of migration flows. Contrary to previous studies, we predict much small migration responses and economic effects. Interestingly, we established strong similarities between the effect of a skill-biased liberalization of labor mobility and what occurred in football after the 1995 Bosman ruling.


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Axis 4: Workers’ mobility and labor market institutions

In Axis 4, we studied how job and worker flows and their geographical distribution determine the within-country distribution of (un-)employment and income. More precisely, our objective was to examine the mechanisms by which geographical disparities in employment and income may arise and persist over time. A priori, one could think that labor mobility contributes to eliminate or at least reduce spatial disparities. We showed that some imperfections in the residential mobility interact with search-matching frictions to yield non negligible levels of equilibrium unemployment rates despite perfect mobility of jobs. The wage and unemployment performance of African-Americans and African migrants is a major concern. The role of “contact jobs” as a source of discrimination and the role of public housing had not been much studied in the literature. Interacted with residential mobility, they both turn out to deeply affect the position of these discriminated workers. Axis 4 relied on the search and matching framework where imperfect information generates frictions and a positive equilibrium unemployment rate. This framework was extended by making the spatial dispersion of workers and jobs explicit. So doing, one could see how decision locations (about residence and where to search for a job) interact with the housing and the frictional labor market. Getting as many analytical results as possible was the aim. However, the complexity of the interactions makes numerical analyses needed. Our models were calibrated for regions and MSAs in the US and then simulated. An alternative approach was also developed, namely the collection of large individual data sets and the application of micro-econometric techniques to estimate reduced-form models.
In the equilibrium job-search theory, it has been shown by Burdett and Mortensen that identical workers can be paid differently if there is on-the-job search and wage posting. We reached a similar dispersion among identical workers when geography matters. With the models developed within Axis 4, the equilibrium values of unemployment and earnings can be dispersed even when job centers are identical and workers are equally productive. To get this conclusion, we introduced explicitly the spatial distribution of jobs and workers in theoretical settings where the mobility of workers (between locations and between unemployment and employment) is imperfect and/or, thanks to nowadays communication technologies, job-seekers can search in different regions without first migrating. In all cases, inefficiency of the allocation in the laisser-faire economy is the rule rather than the exception. Discrimination had been studied for a long time. The originality of the research conducted in Axis 4 is threefold. First, the specific role of consumer discrimination through ‘’contact jobs’’ was investigated and shown to be important. Second, the interaction between discrimination and residential mobility was accounted for. The conclusion is that taking into account the sorting process due to residential mobility does not change the conclusion that relative earnings of African-Americans are lower in areas where the proportions of prejudiced individuals and of contact jobs are high. Third, the geographical distribution of public housing (a major institution in some European countries) distorts the efficient allocation of labor and hence affects the labor market outcomes of African immigrants in France.

Axis 4 was mainly supervised by Bruno Van der Linden and Henri Sneessens. One full-time researcher, Paola Montero Ledezma, has been affected to this axis. A second researcher not financed by the ARC contract, Vanessa Lutgen, has been associated to the project. Finally, a post-doc researcher, Morgane Laouenan, has also been affected to this axis. In collaboration with the promoters and external collaborators, the two first researchers have developed new search/matching models of the equilibrium unemployment rate when individuals and firms are spatially distributed. The post-doc researcher has studied the interaction between ‘’contact jobs’’, the housing market and discrimination against African-Americans and African migrants in France. Our activities involved eight external collaborators (A. Bucher, P. Combes, B. Decreuse, E. Lehmann, A. Trannoy, G. Verdugo, W. Xiao, Y. Zenou). Our main findings can be described as following:

  • The research of Paola Montero Ledezma generated four papers, one of which is under revision at the Journal of Urban Economics. The defense of her PhD is expected in March 2015. These papers are at the boundary between Urban economics and Labor economics. They intend to understand how equilibrium unemployment can be the consequence of the spatial distribution of workers and jobs in the presence of search-matching frictions. They also study the efficiency of the allocation of resources. The research of Vanessa Lutgen has currently two outputs at the boundary of Regional economics and Labor economics. The aims are the same as in the case of the first researcher. However, commuting is ruled out and replaced by endogenous inter-regional migration. The first output is a static model under revision at Regional Science and Urban Economics. The second paper is an extension of the first one in a dynamic setting. All these papers conclude that besides a number of factors that are standard in labor economics, geography matters when one intends to understand the causes of equilibrium unemployment. Workers’ and firms’ mobility is not sufficient to eliminate unemployment in these theoretical settings. The allocation of resources is inefficient in a laissez-faire decentralized economy. In each case, the models were calibrated and simulated to provide orders of magnitude of the effects.
  • In a paper forthcoming in the Journal of Labor Economics, Morgane Laouenan investigates the link between the over-exposure of African immigrants to unemployment in France and their under-representation in jobs in contact with customers. The results show that there is both employer and customer discrimination in the French labor market. The other papers are either submitted (one under revision at Labour Economics) or work-in-progress. Two papers exploiting US data proved that racial discrimination are detrimental to employment and wages of African-Americans and that this effect is not driven by their residential mobility out of prejudiced areas. In a last paper, she showed that ethnic networks in public housing influence both the residential location choice of African immigrants and their labor market outcomes. All these papers of Morgane Laouenan used the search and matching framework and develop a thorough micro-econometric analysis.


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Axis 5: Mobility at various scales

Axis 5 focused on the links between international, interregional and intra-regional movements of factors. Urban economics and new economic geography have uncovered the underpinnings of urban agglomeration and regional disparities, thus explaining spatial inequality at various spatial scales. The aim of the current axis was to build bridges between the international and the regional levels by developing new theoretical frameworks as well as empirical testing of some of the predictions arising. In this axis, we examined the interactions between, intra-national labor mobility, between the rural and urban sectors or between the informal and formal sectors, and economic development. Our team is now introducing high-skilled international migration in this framework; he investigates the link between international migration and rural-to-urban migration within the country. Second, we studied the determinants of international migrant’s location choice in Belgium. Methodologically speaking, the first set of papers used quantitative theory and parametrized models on developing or sub-Saharan African countries. The paper on location decisions of foreigners used structural econometrics.

Our scientific activities under Axis 5 involved one early-stage researchers funded by ARC (A. Kayaoglu), one non-funded early-stage researchers (M. Delogu), one post-doc researchers funded by ARC (I. Ruyssen), and five external collaborators (H. Jayet, T. Müller, J. Naval Navarro, G. Rayp, N. Ukraynchuk). We obtained the following three main findings:

  • First, we studied the dynamic implications of informality for developing countries. Indeed, one of the most salient features of poor economies is the existence of a large, sometimes predominant, informal sector. Although informality serves to protect low-skilled workers against unemployment, it has important implications for the long-run development of developing countries. On the one hand, informality increases the income level of poor households and the potential demand for education. On the other hand, it negatively affect the returns to education and increase the opportunity cost of children (by facilitating child labor). We investigated the dynamics effects on income inequality, human capital accumulation and development. Our model can generate transitory informality equilibria or informality-induced poverty traps. Its calibration reveals that the case for the poverty-trap hypothesis is strong: although informality serves to protect low-skilled workers from extreme poverty in the short-run, it prevents income convergence between developed and developing nations in the long run. We examined the effectiveness of different development policies to exit the poverty trap
  • The second paper investigated the complex interactions between education, urbanization and development. Since Lucas (1988) and Azariadis and Drazen (1990), human capital disparities have been given a central role in the analysis of growth and development. In addition, it has long been argued that there is a close connection between urbanization and economic growth. Hence, it is a paradox that, in the second half the past century, the highest progress in schooling and urbanization was observed in sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the lowest GDP per capita growth rates. We built a unified model endogenizing human capital accumulation, urbanization and economic development in a model with temporary urbanization costs. The model was calibrated on Africa using panel regressions and identification hypotheses. It does an excellent job in fitting historical data on the proportion of college graduates, share of urban population and growth in GDP per capita. The model was then used to predict the evolution of the key variables for the next decades. Due to those temporary urbanization costs, rapid urbanization and human capital development in Africa have not yet given rise to high economic growth rates. However they create a latent growth potential (referred to as the African growth backlog) which will gradually materialize when urban population and human capital will have reach stable levels. In the same framework, Marco Delogu has introduced high-skilled international migration to investigate the link between international migration and rural-to-urban migration within the country. As brain drain operates, the demand for low-skilled labor decreases in cities. This slows down the urbanization process and the accumulation of human capital. Marco uses numerical simulations to investigate the short-run and long-run impacts on the economy.
  • Finally, Ilse Ruyssen’s paper studied migratory streams to Belgian municipalities between 1994 and 2007. The Belgian population register constitutes a rich and unique database of yearly migrant in flows and stocks broken down by nationality, which allows us to empirically explain the location choice of immigrants at municipality level. The analysis enables to disentangle the network effect, captured by the number of previous arrivals, from other location-specific characteristics such as local labor or housing market conditions and the presence of public amenities. It was shown that the spatial repartition of immigrants in Belgium is determined by both network effects and local characteristics. The determinants of local attractiveness vary by nationality but, for all nationalities, they dominate the impact of network effects.



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III.  List of Publications per year 

2009

Five papers were published in 2009:

  • Docquier, F., B.L. Lowell and A. Marfouk (2009). A gendered assessment of highly skilled emigration. Population and Development Review 35 (2), 297-322. Under Axis 1.
  • Docquier, F., H. Rapoport (2009). Documenting the brain drain of la crème de la crème: three case studies on international migration at the upper tail of the education distribution. Journal of Economics and Statistics 229 (6), 679-705. Under Axis 1.
  • Vandenbussche, H. (2009). US-laws, regulations and methodology for calculating dumping margins (zeroing) (DS294). Comment. World Trade Review 8 (1), 1-3. Under Axis 2.
  • Vandenbussche, H (2009). Footloose Production. In: K. A. Reinert, R. S. Rajan, A. J. Glass, L. S. Davis (eds.). Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy, Princeton University Press. Under Axis 2.
  • Vandenbussche, H [for the European Commission] (2009). Antidumping Protection. Good for Bad Firms, Bad for Good Firm. BEPA monthly n°27, p23. Under Axis 2.

2010

Seven papers were published in 2010:

  • Beine, M., F. Docquier, C. Ozden (2010). Diaspora effects in international migration: key questions and methodological issues. Swiss Economic Journal of Economics and Statistics, 146 (4), 639-659. Under Axis 1.
  • Beine, M., F. Docquier, H. Rapoport (2010). On the robustness of brain gain estimates. Annales d'Economie et de Statistiques 97/98, 143-165. Under Axis 3.
  • Vandenbussche, H., J. Wauters (2010). Motor Vehicles from China: dispute settlement case. World Trade Review 9 (1), 201-238. Under Axis 2.
  • Van Beveren, I., H. Vandenbussche (2010). Product and Process innovation and the decision to Export. Journal of Economic Policy Reform 13 (1), 3-24. Under Axis 2.
  • Vandenbussche, H., M. Zanardi (2010). The Chilling Effects of Antidumping Law Proliferation. European Economic Review 54, 760-777. Under Axis 2.
  • Poncet, S., W. Steingress, H. Vandenbussche (2010). Financial Constraints in China: firm-level evidence. China Economic Review 21 (3), 411-422. Under Axis 2.
  • Vandenbussche, H., M. Zanardi (2010). Much Ado about Nothing? Vox-article (http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/4729). Under Axis 2.

2011

Seven papers were published in 2011:

  • Beine, M., C. Defoort, F. Docquier (2011). A Panel data analysis of the brain gain. World Development, 39 (4), 523-532. Under Axis 3.
  • Beine, M., F. Docquier, C. Ozden (2011). Diasporas. Journal of Development Economics, 95 (1), 30-41. Under Axis 1.
  • Beine, M., S. Salomone (2011). "Network effects in international migration: Education versus Gender", Scandinavian Journal of Economics 115 (2), 354-380. Under Axis 1.
  • Bhargava, A., F. Docquier, Y. Moullan (2011). Modeling the effect of physician emigration on human development, Economics and Human Biology 9 (2), 172-183. Under Axis 3.
  • Chojnicki, X., F. Docquier and L. Ragot (2011). Should the US have locked heaven's door? Reassessing the benefits of postwar immigration. Journal of Population Economics 24, 317-359. Under Axis 3.
  • Vandenbussche H., C. Viegelahn (2011). European Union: No Protectionist Surprises. In: C.P. Bown (ed.), The Great Recession and Import Protection: The Role of Temporary Trade Barriers (Chapter 3), London, CEPR and the World Bank. Under Axis 2.
  • Vandenbussche, H., C. Viegelahn (2011). Has EU trade Protection gone up during the crisis?”, Vox article (http://www.voxeu.org/article/has-eu-import-protection-gone-during-crisis). Under Axis 2.

2012

Seven papers were published in 2012:

  • de la Croix, D.,F. Docquier (2012). Do brain drain and poverty result from coordination failures? Journal of Economic Growth 17 (1), 1-26. Under Axis 3.
  • Docquier, F., A. Marfouk, S. Salomone, K. Sekkat (2012). Are skilled women more migratory than skilled men? World Development 40 (2), 251-265. Under Axis 1.
  • Docquier, F., L. Marchiori (2012). The impact of MENA-to-EU migration in the context of demographic change. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance 11 (2), 243-284. Under Axis 3.
  • Docquier, F., H. Rapoport (2012). Globalization, brain drain and development. Journal of Economic Literature 50 (3), 681-730. Under Axis 3.
  • Docquier, F., H. Rapoport, S. Salomone (2012). Remittances, migrants' education and immigration policy: theory and evidence from bilateral data. Regional Science and Urban Economics 42 (5), 817-828. Under Axis 3.
  • Kayaoglu, A., A. Kaya (2012). Is National Citizenship Withering Away? Social Affiliations and Labor Market Integration of Turkish Origin Immigrants in Germany and France. German Studies Review 35 (1), 113-134. Under Axis 3.
  • Vandenbussche, H., F. di Comite, L. Rovegno, C. Viegelahn (2012). Competition from China and Quality upgrading: evidence from trade data in clothing. Journal of Economic Integration 28 (2), 303-326. Under Axis 2.

2013

Six papers were published in 2013:

  • Beine, M., F. Docquier, M. Schiff (2013). International Migration, Transfer of Norms, and Home Country Fertility. Canadian Journal of Economics 46 (4), 1406-1430. Under Axis 3.
  • Hartigan, J., H. Vandenbussche (2013). Why is there an Antidumping Agreement? Review of Development Economics 17 (1), 105-116. Under Axis 2.
  • Marchiori, L., I-L. Shen, F. Docquier (2013). Brain drain in globalization: a general equilibrium analysis from the perspective of sending countries. Economic Inquiry 51 (2), 1582-1602. Under Axis 3.
  • Rovegno, L. (2013). Trade protection and market power: evidence from US antidumping and countervailing duties. Review of World Economics. Under Axis 2.
  • Vandenbussche, H., J. Konings (2013). Antidumping hurts Exporters: firm-level evidence. Review of World Economics 149, 295-320. Under Axis 2.
  • Vandenbussche, H., C. Viegelahn (2013). Indian Antidumping Measures against China. Foreign Trade Review 48 (1), 1-21. Under Axis 2.

2014

Eight papers were published in 2014: 

  • Altomonte, C., T. Sono, H. Vandenbussche, H. (2014). Firm-level Productivity and Exporting: Diagnosing the role of Financial Constraints. EU Commission, Product Market Review Report, chapter 1, Part II. Under Axis 2.
  • Bernard, A.B., I. Van Beveren, H. Vandenbussche (2014). Multi-product Exporters and the Margins of Trade. Japanese Economic Review 65 (2), 142-157. Under Axis 2.
  • di Comité, F., J. Thisse, H. Vandenbussche (2014). Verti-zontal Differentiation in Export Markets. Journal of International Economics 93 (1), 50-66. Under Axis 2.
  • Docquier, F., C. Ozden, G. Peri (2014). The Labor Market Effects of Immigration and Emigration in OECD countries. Economic Journal 124 (579), 1106-1145. Under Axis 3.
  • Docquier, F., C. Vasilakis, D. Tamfutu Munsi (2014). International migration and the propagation of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Health Economics 35 (1), 22-30. Under Axis 3.
  • Kayaoglu, A. (2014). Socio-economic Impact of Conflict: The Case of Turkey. Defence and Peace Economics, forthcoming. Under Axis 1.
  • Maystadt, J-F., Ph. Verwimp (2014). Winners and losers among a refugee-hosting population. Economic Development and Cultural Change 62 (4), 769-809. Under Axis 3.
  • Vandenbussche, H. (2014). Quality in Exports. Economic Papers, EU Commission, September. Under Axis 2.

Forthcoming articles

Six papers have been accepted for publication and are in press:

  • Artuc, E., Docquier, F., A. Marfouk, C. Ozden, C. Parsons (2014). A global assessment of human capital mobility: the role of non-OECD destinations. World Development, forthcoming. Under Axis 1.
  • Combes, P-P., B. Decreuse, M. Laouenan, A. Trannoy (2014). Customer discrimination and employment outcomes: Theory and evidence from the French labor market. Journal of Labor Economics. Under Axis 4.
  • de la Croix, D., F. Docquier (2014). An incentive mechanism to break the low-skill immigration deadlock. Review of Economic Dynamics, forthcoming. Under Axis 3.
  • Docquier, F., J. Machado, K. Sekkat (2012). Efficiency gains from liberalizing labor mobility. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, forthcoming. Under Axis 3.
  • Docquier, F., G. Peri, I. Ruyssen (2014). The cross-country determinants of potential and actual migration. International Migration Review, forthcoming. Under Axis 1.
  • Khatibi, A. (2014). Trade Diversion and Trade Creation with Antidumping trade measures. Economics Letters, forthcoming. Under Axis 2.

Manuscript not yet accepted

We have produced twenty-nine additional papers who have not yet been accepted for publication:

  • Ariu, A., F. Docquier, M.P. Squicciarini (2014). Governance Quality and Net Migration Flows. Submitted. Under Axis 1.
  • Aubry, A., M. Kugler, H. Rapoport (2014). Migration, FDI and the margins of trade. Manuscript. Under Axis 3.
  • Beine, M., F. Docquier, C. Ozden (2014). Dissecting Network Externalities in International Migration. Submitted. Under Axis 1.
  • Bernard, A.B., E. Blanchard, I. Van Beveren, H. Vandenbussche (2014). Carry-Along Trade. Submitted. Under Axis 2.
  • Bucher A., P.L. Montero Ledezma (2014). A matching model with heterogeneity in commuting and relocation costs. Manuscript. Under Axis 4.
  • Burzynski, M., A. Aubry (2014). The welfare impact of global migration in the OECD countries. Manuscript. Under Axis 3.
  • Delogu, M., F. Docquier, J. Machado (2013). The dynamic implications of liberalizing global migration. IRES Discussion Paper 2013-029. Under Axis 3.
  • di Comité, F., J. Thisse, H. Vandenbussche (2014). Does Country Size matter for product-level Exports? Manuscript. Under Axis 2.
  • di Comité, F., J. Thisse, H. Vandenbussche (2014),Distance Revisited. Again! Manuscript. Under Axis 2.
  • Docquier, F., A. Kayaoglu, H. Rapoport (2014). Managing education policies with brain drain. Submitted. Under Axis 3.
  • Docquier, F., J. Machado (2014). Global competition for attracting talents and the world economy. Submitted. Under Axis 3.
  • Docquier, F., T. Müller, J. Naval Navarro (2014). Informality and Development. Submitted. Under Axis 5.
  • Docquier, F., I. Ruyssen, M. Schiff (2014). International migration: pacifier or trigger for military conflicts. Manuscript. Under Axis 3.
  • Jakobsson, A. (2014). Export-Learning and FDI with Heterogeneous Firms. Manuscript. Under Axis 3.
  • Jayet, H. ,G. Rayp, I. Ruyssen, N. Ukrayinchuk (2014). Immigrants' location choice in Belgium. Submitted. Under Axis 5.
  • Kayaoglu, A., J. Naval Navarro (2014). Urbanization, Education and the Growth Backlog of Africa. Manuscript. Under Axis 5.
  • Le Goff M., S. Salomone (2014). Changes in Migration Patterns and Remittances: do Female and Skilled Migrants Remit More? Submitted. Under Axis 3.
  • Laouenan M. (2014). “Hate at First Sight”: Evidence of consumer Discrimination against African-Americans in the US. Revise and resubmit at Labour Economics. Under Axis 4.
  • Laouenan M. (2014). “`Can't get Enough”: Prejudice, Contact-jobs and the Racial Wage Gap in the US. IZA Discussion paper P No. 8006, Bonn. Under Axis 4.
  • Laouenan M., G. Verdugo (2014). Ethnic Networks and Immigrants Sorting Evidence from Public Housing. Manuscript. Under Axis 4.
  • Lehmann E., P.L. Montero Ledezma, B. Van der Linden (2014). Inefficient equilibrium unemployment in a matching model with commuting. Revise and resubmit at the Journal of Urban Economics. Under Axis 4.
  • Lodigiani, E., S. Salomone (2014). Migration-induced Transfers of Norms. The case of Female Political Empowerment. Submitted. Under Axis 3.
  • Lutgen V., B. Van der Linden (2014). Regional equilibrium unemployment theory at the age of the Internet. Revise and resubmit at Regional Science and Urban Economics. Under Axis 4.
  • Machado, J. (2014). On the welfare impacts of an immigration amnesty. Submitted. Under Axis 3.
  • Montero Ledezma P.L. (2014). Social networks, commuting and (un)employment rates. Manuscript. Under Axis 4.
  • Montero Ledezma P.L., W. Xiao, Y. Zenou (2014). Search, labor supply and unemployment of married women in cities. Manuscript. Under Axis 4.
  • Song, H., K. Miyagiwa, H. Vandenbussche (2014). Trade Wars: size matters! Submitted Under Axis 2.
  • Vandenbussche, H., C. Viegelahn (2014). Input- and Output Switching resulting from Trade Protection: firm-level Evidence from India. Submitted Under Axis 2.
  • Vasilakis, C. (2014). Globalization Market for talents and Inequality: What can be learned from European football? Manuscript. Under Axis 3.

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IV. Traning

Training of PhD students funded by ARC

Six Phd students were funded by ARC and defended their PhD:

  • On August 23, 2010, our ARC fellow Jean-François Maystadt defended his doctoral thesis in Economics on "Conflicts and Forced migration". Composition of the jury: Prof. Jacques Thisse (UCL, supervisor), Prof. Frédéric Docquier (UCL), Prof. Gilles Duranton (University of Toronto), Prof. Giordano Mion (London School of Economics) et Prof. Dominique Peeters (UCL). Jean-François was funded by our ARC convention between September 2009 and August 2010. He is now a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Lancaster University Management School.
  • In May 2011, our ARC fellow Sara Salomone defended her thesis in Economics on "Four Empirical Essays on International Migration", a thesis in co-tutelle with the University Tor vergata in Rome. Composition of the jury: Prof. Frédéric Docquier (UCL, supervisor), Prof. Leonardo Becchetti (University Tor Vergata in Rome, co-supervisor), Prof. Michel Beine (University of Luxembourg), Prof. Giuseppe De Arcangelis (University La Sapienza in Rome), Prof. Gustavo Piga (University Tor Vergata in Rome) and Prof. Sara Savastano (University Tor Vergata in Rome). Sara was funded by our ARC convention between September 2009 and May 2011. She is now a Chargée de Recherche at FNRS.
  • In June 2013, Chrysovalantis Vasilakis defended his PhD “Essays in Economic Growth and International Migration”. Chrysovalantis was funded by ARC in 2011-2012 (25 percent EFT in 2011 and 75 percent EFT in 2012). He was supervised by Raouf Boucekkine (IRES, UCLouvain) and Frederic Docquier (IRES, UCLouvain). The other members of the jury were: Oded Galor (Brown University), Sergey Mityakov (Clemson University), Vincenzo Verardi (UNamur) and Sébastien Van Bellegem (CORE, UCLouvain). Chrysovalantis was funded by our ARC convention between September 2011 and August 2012. He is now a Lecturer in Economics and Econometrics at the Bangor Business School.
  • In January 2014, Aysegul Kayaoglu defended her thesis in Economics on “Four essays on the policy implications of migration”. Composition of the jury: Prof. Frédéric Docquier (UCL, supervisor), Prof. Abdurrahman Aydemir (Sabanci University), Prof. Catherine Guirkinger (University of Namur), Prof. Luca Pensieroso (Catholic University of Louvain), Prof. William Parientè (Catholic University of Louvain). Aysegul was funded by our ARC convention between September 2009 and August 2011. Then, she joined the London School of Economics under the European Doctoral Program. She is now an assistant professor at the Instanbul Technical University.
  • In September 2014, Francesco Di Comite defended his thesis on “"Verti-zontal Differentiation in Monopolistic Competition". The doctoral jury consisted of H. Vandenbussche (supervisor), G. Ottaviano (UCL), J.Thisse (UCL) and F. Mayneris (UCL). Francesco was funded by our ARC convention between September 2009 and August 2011. Francesco is currently a tenured staff member of the EU Commission research department.
  • Paola Liliana Montero Ledezma has been affected to the axis 4, "Workers, mobility and labor market institutions". As a full time researcher from October 2009 until December 2012, she counts four work-in-progress papers: "Inefficient equilibrium unemployment in a matching model with commuting" (joint project with Etienne Lehmann (University Panthéon-Assas Paris 2 and CREST, INSEE) and Bruno Van der Linden), "A matching model with heterogeneity in commuting and relocation costs" (joint project with Anne Bucher (BETA, Université de Strasbourg)), "Does residential location affect the labor supply of married women?" (joint project with Wei Xiao (Stockholm University) and Yves Zenou (Stockholm University)) and "Workers mobility and labor market outcomes in developing countries". Paola pre-defended her thesis in October 2014. The public defense is expected to take place in March 2015

Training of non-funded PhD students

Six non-funded PhD students benefitted from the ARC environment and defended their PhD:

  • Emanuele Forlani
  • Arastou Khatibi
  • Laura Rovegno
  • Aminata Sissoko
  • Andrea Ariu
  • Christian Viegelahn
  • Joël Machado

Training of non-funded PhD students who have not yet defended

Five other non-funded PhD students have not yet defended:

  • Amandine Aubry
  • Sotiris Blanas
  • Michal Burzynski
  • Marco Delogu
  • Vanessa Lutgen

Training of postdocs funded by ARC

Three postdoc students were funded by ARC:

  • Morgane Laouenan joined IRES for a one-year postdoc position in October 2012. Morgane conducted research on discrimination against ethnic minorities in the labor market. In her PhD thesis, she used individual-level data to study the impact of racial prejudice on labor market outcomes of minorities, such as employment, wages and probability of occupying a job in contact with consumers. Her research focused both on African immigrants in France and on Afro-Americans in the US. Morgane stayed at IRES between October 2012 and August 2014 and took part of the ARC project on “Geographical mobility of workers and firms”. She worked on the links between labor market institutions, unemployment and labor mobility between regions.
  • In September 2013, Ilse Ruyssen joined IRES for a one-year postdoc. Ilse obtained her PhD from Ghent University. In her dissertation, she empirically investigated the determinants of international migration and migrants’ location choice. The focus was on identifying the driving forces of migration to the OECD and between African countries, with specific attention to dynamic processes and spatial dependence. She also analyzed to what extent immigrants’ choice of residence within Belgium is driven by networks versus the genuine appeal of municipalities. Another part of her research involves the role of European immigration policies in shaping migration streams from African countries. At IRES, she exploited new micro-data on desired migration. She compared desired migration with actual migratory movements and studies how removing legal migration barriers could affect migration flows. She was also involved in another research project on bilateral migration and international conflicts.
  • In January 2014, Amanda Jakobsson joined IRES for a six-month postdoc under the ARC convention on “Geographical Mobility of Workers and Firms”. She was on leave from Singapore Management University where she is Assistant Professor of Economics after obtaining her PhD from Stockholm School of Economics in June 2013. In her dissertation, she developed and calibrated dynamic general equilibrium models of North-South trade to study the role of intellectual property rights for exporting and foreign direct investment (FDI). The focus was on disentangling the impact of trade liberalization and stronger patent protection in developing countries on innovation, technology transfers and consumer welfare. At IRES, she studied how the location of multinational firm activity affects international migration of skilled labor in developing countries. More precisely, she investigated whether investments by multinational firm in nearby countries increases the emigration of high-skilled workers, spurring the brain drain and the geographic concentration of talents within developing countries.

Training of non-funded postdocs

Three other non-funded postdocs were closely related to our team:

  • Julien Martin
  • Sara Salomone
  • Marion Mercier

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V. Events

Conferences

Mid-term workshop on “Geographical Mobility of Workers and Firms”

A multi-axis workshop was organized at IRES on January 17-18, 2012. This workshop was financially supported by the Belgian French-speaking Community (convention ARC 09/14-019) and the FRS-FNRS (Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique). The organizers were Frédéric Docquier, Khalid Sekkat, Hylke Vandenbussche and Bruno Van der Linden.

International conference on “International labor mobility and inequality across nations"

picture conference ferdiIn the framework of the ARC research project on “Geographical Mobility of Workers and Firms”, IRES organized an international Conference on "International labor mobility and inequality across nations". The event was jointly organized with FERDI/CERDI (Université d’Auvergne) and was held in Clermont-Ferrand on January 23-24, 2013. The conference was devoted to investigating the effects of international migration on the geographic distribution of human capital and its implications for the world economy (Axis 3). Questions addressed were: How large are migration flows (by education and by gender)? How does labor mobility affect inequality across nations? What are the determinants of migration flows/stocks? Are policy barriers quantitatively important? How would the world economy respond to a (selective or non-selective) liberalization of labor mobility? The conference included presentations by invited renowned speakers (Michel Beine from the University of Luxembourg, Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga from FEDEA-IAE-CSIC, Mäelan Legoff from CEPII, Andrew Mountford from Royal Holloway London, Çaglar Özden from the World Bank, Chris Parsons from the University of Oxford, Hillel Rapoport from Bar Ilan University, Sara Salomone from IRES), one dinner speech by Paul Collier from the University of Oxford, and 24 selected papers organized in 8 thematic sessions. A selection of papers from the conference is now being considered for a special issue of The World Economy.

Scientific committee: Simone Bertoli (CERDI UdA), Jim de Melo (Unige and FERDI), Frédéric Docquier (IRES and FERDI) and Patrick Guillaumont (FERDI). Local organizers: Simone Bertoli (CERDI UdA), Vianney Dequiedt (CERDI UdA), Frédéric Docquier (IRES and FERDI) and Kelly Labart (FERDI).

International Conference on "Labor Mobility, the Housing Market and Labor Market Outcomes”

In the framework of the ARC research project on “Geographical Mobility of Workers and Firms”, Axis 4 organized in Louvain-la-Neuve an international Conference on "Labor Mobility, the Housing Market and Labor Market Outcomes”. This workshop was held on May 22-23, 2014. Regional disparities in unemployment and wages are large, often persistent, and presumably not efficient. The workshop aimed at bringing together high-quality papers that address the following questions. To what extent are these disparities due to a range of frictions (search-matching frictions, lack of labor mobility, etc.), imperfect competition or discrimination? Is the functioning of the housing market (homeownership, housing busts, etc.) part of the explanation? Do agglomeration forces reinforce/reduce these disparities? Is public intervention an additional cause or instead required to correct inefficiencies? During the workshop, three keynote lectures were given by respectively Paul Beaudry (UBC), Etienne Wasmer (Science Po, Paris) and Yves Zenou (Stockholm University). Fifteen other presentations from all over Europe, the US, and Canada were of high quality.

Organizers: Mathias Hungerbühler (Université de Namur), Morgane Laouénan, Vanessa Lutgen and Bruno Van der Linden (Université catholique de Louvain).

Invitation of external researchers

The ARC team has invited several external academic members to present their contribution on “geographic mobility of workers and firms” at the IRES Research Seminar (IRS), the Macro-Lunch Seminar (MLS) and the Trade and Economic Geography Seminar (joint CORE-IRES). Overall, 45 seminars on the “geographic mobility of workers and firms” were organized between September 2009 and June 2014:

Seminars in 2009:

  • October 22, 2009: Mariya Teteryatnikova (EIU Vienna)
  • October 22, 2009: Marco Caliendo (IZA - Bonn)
  • November 5, 2009: Antonio Spilimbergo (IMF)
  • November 26, 2009: Assaf Razin (Tel Aviv University)
  • December 3, 2009: Michel Beine (University of Luxembourg)

Seminars in 2010:

  • February 4, 2010: Mario Piacentini (University of Geneva)
  • February 18, 2010: Biaggio Speciale (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
  • March 4, 2010: Giovanni Facchini (University of Milano and Rotterdam)
  • March 18, 2010: Giovanni Peri (University of California at Davis)
  • April 18, 2010: Michael Clemens (Center for Global Development, US)
  • February 18, 2010: Tobias Mueller (University of Geneva)
  • December 2, 2010: Caroline Freund (World Bank)

Seminars in 2011:

  • April 7, 2011: Florin Bilbie (Univ Paris 1)
  • April 28, 2011: Mathias Hungerbühler (FUNDP)
  • May 19, 2011: Hillel Rapoport (Harvard Kennedy School)
  • October 6, 2011: Tobias Mueller (University of Geneva)
  • October 20, 2011: Kacklin Wahba (University of Southampton)
  • October 27, 2011: Gani Aldashev (FUNDP)
  • November 3, 2011: Herbert Brucker (IAB Nuremberg)
  • November 10, 2011: Italo Colantone (ERASMUS Rotterdam)
  • December 8, 2011: Catia Batista (Trinity College Dublin)
  • December 15, 2011: Luca Opromolla (Bank of Portugal)

Seminars in 2012:

  • February 2, 2012: Oded Galor (Brown University)
  • February 16, 2012: Luisito Bertinelli (Univ of Luxembourg)
  • October 4, 2012: Carlo Altomonte (Bocconi University)
  • November 12, 2012: Thomas Chaney (Toulouse School of Economics)
  • November 22, 2012: Simone Bertoli (FERDI, Université d'Auvergne)
  • November 29, 2012: Vanessa Strauss-Kahn (ESCP Europe Paris)
  • December 6, 2012: Fabien Tripier (Université of Lille 1)

Seminars in 2013:

  • September 17, 2013: Ina Simonovska (UCDavis)
  • September 26, 2013: Matthias Wrede (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and CESifo)
  • October 10, 2013: Ilse Ruysen (IRES, UCL)
  • October 29, 2013: Manuel-Garcia-Santana (ULB)
  • November 14, Roland Rathelot (CREST)
  • December 12, Ludo Visschers, (University of Edinburgh and Universidad Carlos III, Madrid)
  • January 31, 2013: Hillel Rapoport (Bar Ilan University)
  • February 7, 2013: Marc Gurgand (Paris School of Economics)
  • March 7, 2013: Giovanni Peri (UC Davis)
  • April 3, 2013: Gianmarco Ottaviano(London School of Economics, United-Kingdom)
  • May 30, 2013: Etienne Wasmer (Science-Po Paris - LIEPP)

Seminars in 2014:

  • February 6, 2014: Francis Kramarz (CREST)
  • March 4, 2014: Clément Nedoncelle (Université de Lille)
  • March 13, 2014: Flore Gubert (IRD & PSE)
  • May 8, 2014: Romain Warcziarg (UCLA)
  • June 24, 2014: Toni Glaser (KULeuven and Bielefeld University)

 

Visiting research program

 Thanks to ARC funding, IRES has initiated a new Visiting Research Program. We invite leading international experts for a research stay at IRES. Experts give a research seminar, and meet our members and colleagues from UCLouvain to exchange ideas. 

  • IRES hosted Tobias Müller between October 1 and 31, 2011. Tobias is an associate Professor of applied economics at the University of Geneva. After completing his PhD at the University of Geneva, he was invited Professor at the University Laval in Québec. He has also served as a consultant for the World Bank and the Swiss federal government. His research focuses on different aspects of migration (temporary migration, political economy of migration, trade and migration networks) and on the analysis of tax-benefit reforms and their impact on income distribution and the labor market. His past research also includes studies on European integration using computable general equilibrium models. Tobias gave a presentation on «The political economy of naturalization: the Swiss case» at the IRES Research seminar and interacted with our migration team. We started new projects on trade and migration, attitudes towards immigrants, and the effects of informality on development.
  • We hosted Oded Galor from Jan 24 to Feb 6, 2012. Oded is the Herbert H. Goldberger Professor of Economy at Brown University. He obtained his PhD in Economics from the University of Columbia (1984). Since then, he has produced many seminal contributions to the study of income distribution and economic growth, the transition from stagnation to growth, human evolution and economic development, the study of development traps, the demographic transition, and the advancement of the foundations of overlapping-generations models. He has founded the field of Unified Growth Theory, a theory of growth incorporating an evolutionary perspective and being able to account for the transition from Malthusian stagnation to the modern growth regime. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Economic Growth (Editor), Journal of Population Economics (Associate Editor) and Macroeconomic Dynamics (Associate Editor). Since 1995, he has been co-director of the National Bureau of Economic Research group on Income Distribution and Macroeconomics. During his stay, he interacted with many PhD students as well as faculty members of IRES. Oded also gave two presentations. On Jan 27, he gave a keynote lecture on "Cultural Diversity, Geographical Isolation, and the Origin of the Wealth of Nations", in which he argues that variations in the interplay between cultural assimilation and cultural diffusion can account for differential patterns of economic development across the globe. On Feb 2, he presented his paper on "The Out of Africa Hypothesis, Human Genetic Diversity, and Comparative Economic Development" at the IRES Research Seminar. This paper states that variations in migratory distance from the cradle of humankind to various settlements across the globe affected genetic diversity and deeply influenced the pattern of comparative economic development.
  • We also invited Etienne Lehmann in April 2012. Etienne is Professeur des Universités affiliated to CREST (INSEE) and on leave from Paris II. He is member of CESifo (Munich) and IZA (Bonn). He is also an IRES research associate. In 2011, he has been nominated for the 2011 prize for the best young economist. This annual prize is awarded by the Newspaper Le Monde and the Cercle des économistes to researchers in Economics on the basis of academic excellence and policy outreach criteria. In 2012, he has been nominated to become junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. Etienne Lehmann's research interests are mainly in Public Economics and Macroeconomics. He is in particular a renowned expert in the field of Optimal Taxation. He has published in the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of Public Economics and the Scandinavian Journal of Economics among others. He has collaborated for more than ten years with Bruno Van der Linden.
  • Maurice Schiff visited IRES between September 16 and 20, and between October 24 and 29, 2013. Maurice got his PhD from the University of Chicago. He spent two years as Professor and Research Director of the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Concepcion in Chile. He then served as a Lead Economist in the World Bank International Trade Unit (Development Research Group) and directed the Research Program on International Migration until 2012. He is presently International Consultant in the Development Economics Research Group at the World Bank. His fields of expertise are international trade, agriculture, regional integration, trade and technology diffusion, and international migration. He published more than ten books and many articles in journals such as Journal of International Economics, European Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, World Bank Economic Review, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, etc. During his stay at IRES, Maurice collaborated with Frédéric Docquier, Fabio Mariani and Ilse Ruyssen on several issues such as (i) the relationship between bilateral migration, trade and international conflicts, (ii) the labor market integration of immigrants in the OECD countries, and (iii) political economy models of immigration policies. Maurice’s stay at IRES was funded by the ARC convention on “Geographical mobility of workers and firms”.
  • Giovanni Peri visited IRES between March 4 and 8, 2013. This event was initiated by IRES and organized under our Visiting Research Program. Giovanni Peri is Professor of Economics at University of California at Davis, Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Research Professor at Ifo in Munich, and affiliated with IZA-Bonn and CReAM-London. Giovanni obtained his PhD in Economics at Berkeley in 1998. Since then, he has published many influential papers on the impact of international migrations on labor markets, housing markets and productivity of the receiving countries and on the determinants of international migrations. His works have been published in academic journals such as the American Economic Review, the Review of Economic Studies, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the European Economic Review and the Journal of European Economic Association. Giovanni is Editor of Regional Science and Urban Economics and acts as a member of the editorial Board of five other academic journals in economics. Giovanni has a joint research project at IRES with Frédéric Docquier on the determinants of intentions to emigrate and on the identification of legal immigration barriers. This project is part of our ARC-funded research program on “Geographical mobility of workers and firms”. During his stay, Giovanni had many fruitful interactions with PhD students and faculty members of IRES. On March 7, he gave a presentation on the growth impact of STEM workers (Scientists, Technology professionals, Engineers and Mathematicians) in the United States. His analysis reveals that STEM workers contributed importantly to total factor productivity growth and changes in returns to schooling between 1990 and 2010. And a large fraction of the change in STEM employment has been supply-driven by the expansion of the H1-B immigration visa program.

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