Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- List of conference participants
- 1 Trade and migration: an introduction
- PART ONE INSIGHTS FROM THEORY
- 2 Trade liberalisation and factor mobility: an overview
- Discussion
- 3 Regional integration, trade and migration: are demand linkages relevant in Europe?
- Discussion
- 4 Beyond international factor movements: cultural preferences, endogenous policies and the migration of people: an overview
- Discussion
- 5 Trade liberalisation and public-good provision: migration-promoting or migration-deterring?
- Discussion
- PART TWO QUANTIFYING THE LINKS BETWEEN TRADE AND MIGRATION
- PART THREE HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY EVIDENCE
- Index
2 - Trade liberalisation and factor mobility: an overview
from PART ONE - INSIGHTS FROM THEORY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- List of conference participants
- 1 Trade and migration: an introduction
- PART ONE INSIGHTS FROM THEORY
- 2 Trade liberalisation and factor mobility: an overview
- Discussion
- 3 Regional integration, trade and migration: are demand linkages relevant in Europe?
- Discussion
- 4 Beyond international factor movements: cultural preferences, endogenous policies and the migration of people: an overview
- Discussion
- 5 Trade liberalisation and public-good provision: migration-promoting or migration-deterring?
- Discussion
- PART TWO QUANTIFYING THE LINKS BETWEEN TRADE AND MIGRATION
- PART THREE HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY EVIDENCE
- Index
Summary
Introduction
A reduction in the cost of one type of international transaction – lower transport costs for goods trade or the liberalisation of a factor flow – generally changes the incentives to make other international transactions. There are many examples of the way in which changing trade barriers may change the incentives for factor mobility, although some of these examples pull in opposite directions. For example, in discussion of EU trade policy towards Eastern Europe it is suggested that making trade in goods easier might reduce the incentives for labour to emigrate (Begg et al., 1992). In the study of migration from Europe to the USA in the late nineteenth century, it is argued that reductions in transport costs for agricultural products increased the incentives for labour migration, both inter-regionally and internationally (Harley, 1978, 1980). In a regional context, it is often suggested that falling transport costs were a trigger for migration to cities, as the costs of feeding the urban population were reduced (Bairoch, 1988).
The objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of theory on the relationship between trade liberalisation and factor mobility. What does theory suggest about the way in which reducing the costs of making some transactions changes the incentives to make others? Under what circumstances will goods-trade liberalisation reduce factor flows, and under what circumstances will it increase them? What are the consequences of these factor flows for trade?
This chapter addresses these issues in a number of commonly used trade models, each of which illustrates different forces that may be important.
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- Information
- MigrationThe Controversies and the Evidence, pp. 23 - 48Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
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