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Source-Destination Cultural Differences, Immigrants' Skill Levels, and Immigrant Stocks: Evidence from Six OECD Member Countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Roger White  and
Nicole Yamasaki
Roger White*
Affiliation:
Whittier College, Dept of Economics
Nicole Yamasaki
Affiliation:
Whittier College, Dept of Economics
*
e-mail: rwhite1@whittier.edu
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Abstract

Examining data for 79 immigrant source countries and six OECD member destination countries during the years 1975–2000, we find that source-destination cultural differences inhibit international migration. We also report that existing immigrant stocks act to offset, at least in part, the migration-inhibiting effects of cultural differences. Employing educational attainment as a proxy for skill, we find variation across low-, medium-, and high-skilled immigrant cohorts both with respect to the cultural distance-migration relationship and in terms of the extent to which existing immigrant stocks offset the influence of cultural differences. Our results appear robust to econometric techniques, sample composition, and endogeneity issues.

Keywords

Cultural distancegravity modelmigrationskill variationzero-inflated negative binomialC33F22Z13
Type
Research Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 229 , August 2014 , pp. R53 - R67
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

The authors thank the editor and two anonymous referees for helpful comments and guidance.

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