The economic effects of emigration: a literature review
The economic effects of emigration: a literature review

Summary/Abstract: Despite great policy, social and economic relevance, the consequences of international populationmovements for the sending countries remain relatively under-researched. Migration economics has sofar focused mostly on the impact of immigration, trying to explain how the movement of people affectsthe economic situation of the countries that receive migrants. Studies on the source economies aremostly empirical and analyse the effects of outward population movements on local labour markets,and in particular the wages of those who stay behind, as well as the consequences of brain drain. Thispaper conducts a review of the literature on the economic impacts of migration movements. It presentsthe current state of knowledge and main findings from existing empirical and theoretical studies,focusing on five areas: consequences of brain drain, implications for wages of non-migrants, role ofthe remittances sent by emigrants to the home countries, fiscal effects and welfare consequences. Wedescribe different approaches used so far in the literature to evaluate the effects of emigrants on nonmigrants, focusing both on the methodology, findings and limitations. The article also tries to identifygaps in the existing literature, as well as the potential directions for future research. Finally, we placespecial emphasis on the consequences of population movements following the 2004 EU enlargement,and particularly, on the emigration from Poland as the largest economy entering the EU in 2004.

• Details
• Contents