Capital Mobilization of Skilled Migrants: A Relational Perspective

A central issue for understanding skilled migration in the management literature is human capital. This emphasis ignores other important forms of capital mobilization that skilled migrants from developing countries deploy in dealing with the barriers to their international career mobility. There is therefore a need to develop a holistic understanding of capital mobilization of skilled migrants. In order to develop a more holistic picture, we deploy a relational and multilevel perspective to explore how skilled migrants from developing countries mobilize capital in their efforts to undertake an international career. Career is a central construct in this study. Drawing on a qualitative study of skilled Lebanese in Paris, the paper offers two main contributions to the research on human resource management, in particular to the literatures on skilled migration and self‐initiated expatriation. First it extends our understanding of the strategies that skilled migrants use to relocate from a developing country to an industrialized country. Beyond the traditional human capital perspective, it offers insights about migrants' capital mobilization experiences of undertaking international mobility. Second, using Bourdieu's theory of capital, it offers a relational explanation of their capital mobilization in a way to encompass micro‐individual, meso‐organizational and macro‐contextual influences that affect their career choices.     

Can the Augmented Solow Model with Migration Explain the Italian Internal Brain Drain?

We extend the Dolado et al. (1994) model to both inflows and outflows of migrants and assume that they have a human capital endowment that contributes to increase/decrease the stock of human capital in the receiving/sending economy. We derive the conditional convergence equation in which the impact of migration flows on the growth rate is disentangled in a pure quantity effect and in a quality or composition effect of immigration and emigration rates that accounts for the relative human capital endowment of migrants with respect to resident population. Next, we test the model with Italian regional data for the 1970–2005 time period. We find that the model provides a good explanation of the Italian experience. The quantity effect is negative for the immigration rate and positive for the emigration rate, whereas the composition effect is positive for immigration and negative for emigration. Finally, we separate the centre‐north from the south and find that the composition effect of emigration is stronger for the latter. We interpret these results as a clear evidence of a brain drain from the Mezzogiorno to the centre‐northern regions.     

Human Capital Accumulation,Social Mobility and Migrations

This paper studies the effects of migrations on growth and income distribution when social mobility is imperfect. Workers migrate in response to differences in expected wages between home and a foreign country, but their choice depends also whether they qualified themselves as skilled workers by accumulating human capital or not. Such an activity has a cost, which depends on each agent’s family background: sons of skilled workers have lower human capital accumulation costs. The effects of labour migrations on per capita income depend only on the degree of social mobility: if there is a difference in the cost of accumulating human capital for the sons of educated and non-educated people, migrations reduce total earnings of unskilled workers in the receiving country, and increase those of skilled workers.     

Smart cities: implications of urban planning for human resource development

This paper looks at creative or smart city experiments around the world that are aimed at nurturing a creative economy through investment in quality of life which in turn attracts knowledge workers to live and work in smart cities. It highlights the need for and broad nature of human resource/talent development initiatives at the intermediate level, that is regional and city level, as opposed to organizational and national level. Using the literature on economic geography, it provides a useful theoretical framework to cross organizational boundaries and look for factors that influence the decision of knowledge workers in choosing a location to live and work. The implications of urban planning on the theory and practice of human resource development are explored.     

流动人口自雇的决定机制及收入差异

除工资雇佣外,自雇(包含有雇工自雇和无雇工自雇)是流动人口重要的劳动参与方式. 本文基于2016全国流动人口调查数据,采用多项logit模型考察了自雇的决定机制,并从平均和非线性维度分别运用倾向得分匹配和无条件分位数处理效应模型测度了不同劳动参与方式之间的收入差异. 实证分析结果表明：1)教育有利于流动人口有雇工自雇而无助于无雇工自雇,男性较女性更容易产生自雇,户籍并不会明显影响自雇;专业技术人员并不倾向于自雇,而服务业中的非技能劳动力自雇可能性更大. 2)流动人口有雇工自雇的平均收入水平最高,其后依次为无雇工自雇和工资雇佣;经济越发达的地区,流动人口自雇与其他劳动参与形式的收入差异越大. 3)相对于工资雇佣,流动人口两类自雇的收入均随收入水平上升而递增,且有雇工自雇引致的收入差异更大;不同劳动参与方式间的收入差异主要源于个体间的条件(禀赋)差别.     

Human Resource Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

The need for skills development and training in Sub-Saharan Africa is increasing in an area where unstable economies and high unemployment create challenges on many levels. Sub-Saharan Africa is faced with great poverty, skills migration, and HIV/AIDS, which are depleting the region of skilled workers in their prime working years. The region is facing numerous challenges in the development of skills and the ability to make use of the available human resources. It can be argued that the Sub-Saharan African region needs to increase the skilled labour pool and to develop communities. Perhaps most importantly, there is an urgent need for the region to face the impact of globalization on its own terms. This involves the fusion of African philosophy and management styles with the traditional Western theories with human resource development (HRD) strategies and policies that will be suitable for the developing economies in the region.     

The Role of Profit Sharing in Dual Labour Markets with Flexible Outsourcing

We combine profit sharing for high‐skilled workers and outsourcing of low‐skilled tasks in a partly imperfect dual domestic labour market, which means that only low‐skilled labour is represented by a labour union. In that framework we analyse how the implementation of profit sharing for high‐skilled workers influences the amount of outsourcing and the labour market outcome for low‐skilled worker. By doing this, we use some specific assumptions, e.g. exponentially increasing outsourcing costs or the wage for low‐skilled workers will be determined by a union whereas the wage for high‐skilled workers is given. Assuming that low‐skilled labour and outsourcing are interchangeable we show that profit sharing has a positive effect on the wage for low‐skilled workers and helps to decrease wage dispersion. However, under these circumstances, profit sharing enhances outsourcing. Concerning the employment effects for high‐ and low‐skilled workers, we show that there is an employment reducing effect due to higher wages for low‐skilled work, which can be offset by higher productivity of highly skilled workers, as the domestic labour inputs complement each other.     

Effects of Regional Labour Markets on Migration Flows,by Education Level

European economies display large variations in unemployment rates across regions as well as between education groups. Insufficient labour mobility is widely believed to contribute to higher regional disparities and overall unemployment, but few studies have compared mobility responses of different education groups to regional shocks. This paper employs administrative registers covering the entire Norwegian population to compute annual time series from 1994 to 2004 of migration flows and regional labour market conditions by education level for 90 travel‐to‐work areas. We find that regional disparities in unemployment rates are decreasing in education level, whereas the response of migration flows to regional unemployment shocks is increasing in education level. The results suggest that low regional mobility of low‐educated workers may contribute to higher regional disparities and higher overall unemployment among the low educated.     

Overeducated Workers as an Insurance Device

Empirical findings show that firms frequently employ overeducated workers. Since overeducated workers earn more than adequately educated ones working in similar jobs these findings seem to be puzzling. In this paper, we introduce an insurance approach to explain the employment of overeducated workers. Referring to this approach, overeducated workers are employed by a firm to avoid high losses in the case of a crisis (e.g. when the production process breaks down). Contrary to adequately educated workers, overeducated ones may be helpful in this situation by quickly offering improvisatorial solutions. First, we use a simple model to demonstrate the insurance argument. Second, we test the major implication of the model empirically by using industry panel data: if and only if high‐skilled workers are employed for insurance purposes, the average wage of high‐skilled workers in firms that need insurance will be lower compared with firms that do not need insurance. The data confirm this theoretical result.     

Higher Education Levels,Firms’ Outside Options and the Wage Structure

Abstract. We analyze the consequences of an increase in the supply of highly educated workers on relative and real wages in a search model where wages are set by Nash bargaining. A key insight is that an increase in the average education level exerts a negative externality on wages through its positive externality on the firms’ outside option. As a consequence, the real wage of all workers decreases in the short run. Since this decline is more pronounced for less educated workers, wage inequality increases. In the long‐run a better educated work force induces firms to invest more in physical capital. Wage inequality and real wages of highly educated workers increase while real wages of less educated workers may decrease. These results are consistent with the US experience in the 1970s and 1980s. Based upon differences in legal employment protection we also provide an explanation for the diverging evolution of real and relative wages in Continental Europe.     

Brain drain in Venezuela: the scope of the human capital crisis

ABSTRACT

Brain drain, the exodus of highly skilled professionals, has a strong connection with Human Resource Development (HRD), as these experts are human capital for organizations, communities, and nations. In today’s global economy, HRD practitioners and scholars need to keep abreast of what circumstances trigger the migration of talented workers around the world and the implications for HRD. This article describes the brain drain in Venezuela. The magnitude of the talent crisis is the result of a complex combination of poor policy implementation, mismanagement, corruption, and socio-economic and political conflict. This article exposes the current realities and the repercussions the exodus of talent has had on Venezuela and the decline of a country that was once among the world’s richest, but is now an impoverished nation.     

Permanently ‘in process’: the intersection of migration,work identity and the reality of human resource development in the South African context

This article explores the experiences of skilled Zimbabweans who migrate, only to experience de-skilling upon securing employment in South Africa (SA). This is due to various factors such as insufficient bridging social capital and xenophobia and is exacerbated by the inability of the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa (HRD-SA) to cater for their employment needs. The article is based on qualitative research conducted within a phenomenological paradigm with Zimbabwean migrant women residing in Port Elizabeth, SA. The Zimbabwean context is discussed, as well as the mixed migration methods utilized and the subsequent negative effect that deskilling and under-employment have on the self-identity. It is argued that work constitutes an important signifier of identity, yet the HRD-SA and practice excludes migrants from achieving their potential, thus resulting in brain waste and downward status mobility. In the final section implications for HRD practice are discussed and recommendations made.     

经济发展潜能与人力资本质量

本文以人力资本数量和质量的测算为切入点,研究人均产出水平差异的成因与中国经济的发展潜能问题。本文依据真实经济周期模型确定人力资本数量的"基准水平",推导得出人力资本质量测算公式。由此测算全球经济、7个经济区域、4个经济组织、73个经济体的人力资本质量及年均增长率,按照测算结果从总量和人均这两个层面对其经济增长进行核算分析。本文发现,人力资本质量水平的跨国差异能够解释人均产出水平跨国差异的绝大部分,这两种差异将长期存在,即使高收入经济体之间也未显示出趋同的经验证据。测算结果表明,中国经济的人力资本质量水平显著落后于发达国家且其提升速率确已逐渐放缓。这一经济事实既决定了长期内中国仍将是发展中经济体,又成为制约中国经济可持续发展潜能的重要因素。因此,人力资本质量水平快速提升是中国经济实现潜在发展能力的关键,更是实现赶超目标的基础。而合乎数理逻辑、易于观测、在政策实践中可操作性较好且空间较大的人力资本质量提升途径是消费产出比的扩大。本文预测,若将中国经济消费产出比在未来30年内平稳扩大至2017年美国经济的0.865,仅此就能确保中国最晚可于2027年成为高收入经济体。同时,若能辅之以成熟度不断提高的市场经济体制并将政府支出侧重于持续优化整个教育体系、加大人力资本投资、强化基础研究,或将缩短中国成为发达经济体和领先经济体的时间进程。本文预测,若人力资本质量提升的年均率额外再增加1%,2024年,中国就可跻身高收入经济体;2049年,人均产出水平接近5万美元,达到美国的54.7%。     

Reasons for Wage Rigidity in Germany

Abstract. This study investigates institutional and economic reasons for downward wage rigidity regarding three occupational skill groups. Based on a survey of 801 firms in Germany and an econometric analysis, we find strong support for explanations based on the effects of labour union contracts and efficiency wages that differ between skill groups. Survey respondents indicate that labour union contracts and implicit contracts are important reasons for wage rigidity for the (less) skilled. Specific human capital and negative signals for new hires are causes of the stickiness of wages for the highly skilled. Compared with US evidence, German firms seem to attach more importance to labour union contracts and specific human capital.     

Post‐Migratory Employment Prospects: Evidence from Finland

This paper analyses the role which migration plays in improving post‐migratory employment prospects of migrants (long‐distance) within Finland, by examining the employment status of migrants and non‐migrants at the end of the migration interval. The analysis is based on micro data from the period 1985–90. The results from multivariate analyses suggest that migration by itself has not augmented the likelihood of getting a job, even though tabular comparisons of re‐employment rates between migrants and non‐migrants suggest this to be the case. Migration, however, has an indirect role in enhancing job search outcomes as it moves workers to labour markets characterized by more favourable employment opportunities.     

HOW DESTRUCTIVE IS CREATIVE DESTRUCTION? EFFECTS OF JOB LOSS ON JOB MOBILITY,WITHDRAWAL AND INCOME

We analyze short and long‐term effects of worker displacement. Our sample consists of male workers displaced from Norwegian manufacturing plants. We find that displacement increases the probability of leaving the labor force by 31%. The drop‐out rate from the labor force is particularly high in the first years following displacement. The average earnings effects for those who remain in the labor force are moderate, a 3% loss relative to non‐displaced workers after seven years. Splitting displaced workers on within‐ and between‐firm movers, we find that the estimated earnings loss is entirely driven by between‐firm movers who experience a 3.6% loss. Transfers to other plants within multi‐plant firms upon displacement are quite common. Our results support the view that human capital is partly firm specific and partly industry specific. We find no evidence suggesting that human capital is plant specific.     

Remitting Behaviour of “Temporary” and “Permanent” Migrants: The Case of Greeks in Germany and Australia

This paper makes the point that migrants have different motives for sending remittances and remittance receivers have different claims on migrants' income, depending on whether people move to accumulate capital to improve their living at home after they return — temporary migration — or to start a new life in a foreign country — permanent migration. This hypothesis is empirically tested with data from Greek–German and Greek–Australian migration. The findings attest to the fact that German remittances constitute obligatory income streams to close family at home, while Australian remittances are gifts. Some quantitative estimates of the relative impact of individual factors on remittances are also obtained. Some hints are also given for a changing remitting behaviour of Greek migrants in Germany, along with the changing character of migration in that country.     

SKILL‐BIASED TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE,UNEMPLOYMENT, AND BRAIN DRAIN

We develop a model of directed technology adoption, frictional unemployment, and migration to examine the effects of a change in skill endowments on the wages, employment rates, and emigration rates of skilled and unskilled workers. We find that, depending on the elasticity of substitution between skilled and unskilled workers and the elasticity of the matching function, an increase in the skill ratio can reduce both the relative unemployment rate and the relative emigration rate (brain drain) of skilled workers. We provide numerical simulations to support our findings and show that the effects are empirically relevant and potentially sizable.     

CHANGES IN CHINA'S WAGE STRUCTURE

Using a national sample of Urban Household Surveys, we document several profound changes in China's wage structure during a period of rapid economic growth. Between 1992 and 2007, the average real wage increased by 202%, accompanied by a sharp rise in wage inequality. Decomposition analysis reveals 80% of this wage growth to be attributable to higher pay for basic labor, rising returns to human capital, and increases in the state‐sector wage premium. By employing an aggregate production function framework, we account for the sources of wage growth and wage inequality amid fast economic growth and transition. We find capital accumulation, skill‐biased technological change, and rural–urban migration to be the major forces behind the evolving wage structure in urban China.