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Migration internationale en présence de contraintes sur l’accès au capital : une interprétation de la migration des Pays‐Bas vers le Canada dans les années 1920 .
Author(s) -
Armstrong Alex,
Lewis Frank D.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
canadian journal of economics/revue canadienne d'économique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1540-5982
pISSN - 0008-4085
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5982.2012.01714.x
Subject(s) - immigration , wage , capital (architecture) , constraint (computer aided design) , economics , demographic economics , preference , affect (linguistics) , labour economics , geography , sociology , microeconomics , engineering , mechanical engineering , archaeology , communication
An inability to borrow affected migration from Europe to North America. This capital constraint is formalized with a life‐cycle model, where agents jointly choose how much to save, the optimal period to finance migration, and whether to migrate. Using a life‐cycle model we show that preference for the home country, the period of adjustment after arrival, and the direct cost of migration affect the savings of migrants, age at migration, and who migrates. These results are discussed in light of wages in Canada and the Netherlands, and the characteristics of Dutch immigrants drawn from ship passenger manifests. Capital constraints delayed migration and help explain the large wage gap between the Netherlands and Canada. JEL classification: J61, N32, N34