T. (Tobias) Grohmann, MA

Measures of International Migration: Which one should I use? (with Hanna Fromell)

This projects evaluates the differences between measures of international migration. Because direct measures of migration flows are often not available, practitioners have to choose between a number of proxy measures. Our results suggest that more recent, stock-based demographic accounting measures approximate actual migration flows better than simpler stock differences that have been used by practitioners in the past. We show that using the different available measures in a gravity model can lead to differing conclusions regarding the determinants of international migration.

Cultural Similarity and Migration (single authored)

This paper demonstrates that the relationship between cultural similarity and bilateral migration flows is more nuanced than previously thought. Using the most recent bilateral migration data and a large battery of cultural similarly measures – linguistic, religious, genetic, attitudes-, and trade-based –  I estimate a gravity equation on a panel of country pairs between more than 230 countries from 1990 to 2020. I provide a re-evaluation of the relative effect of different aspects of cultural similarity on the size of migration flows between countries. In line with migration theory and previous empirical findings, higher migration volumes occur between countries with close religious proximity and between countries whose populations are genetically similar. Moreover, migration flows also increase the higher the degree of cultural affinity measured by trade in cultural goods. However, and in contrast to expectations, proximity with respect to common native languages and similarity with respect to an attitudes-based cultural dimension based on population surveys appear to dampen migration. These findings indicate that cultural similarity between countries is not unambiguously associated with higher migration flows as theory and previous findings suggest. 

Stereotypes, Identity and Effort: Do stereotypes affect effort provision of natives and immigrants differently? (with Hanna Fromell)

We investigate to which extent stereotypes affect beliefs and behaviors of those who are subject to stereotyping – especially immigrants. We consider the stereotype that *young* people are lazy. We study whether young immigrants and young natives respond differently to this stereotype in an online lab experiment, in which participants perform a real-effort task. More specifically, we vary information among students about how many people hold the stereotype that young people are lazy and then compare the effort provision across native and international students in the effort task. First, we find evidence that the international students in our sample identify less with relevant social groups than native students and that they are also more likely to think that other people hold the stereotype about them. Second, we find that the students in these two groups differ with respect to effort provision after we vary information about the stereotype among them: compared to receiving information that few people hold the stereotype about them, receiving information that many hold the stereotype affects effort provision of International students who live in the Netherlands significantly more negative than the effort provision of Dutch students.

Remittances and Development (with Hanna Fromell and Robert Lensink)

This chapter highlights the importance of remittances for development, by sketching the magnitude of current and past remittance flows to developing countries and outlines some of the key characteristics of remittances. It discusses the impact of remittances on economic growth and focuses on the relationship between remittances and financial development in the recipient economy. In the context of voluntary labor migration, remittances result from an active migration decision of one or more members of a household aiming to increase the household’s overall income with earnings that are higher than what they would have earned at home. The most important difference between remittances and other sources of external funding of developing countries is that remittances are person-to-person transfers. Using a mutual altruism framework H. Rapoport and F. Docquier show analytically how the volume of the altruistic remittance transfer depends on the altruistic preferences of migrant and recipient as well as on their respective incomes.