Featuring
Florence Jaumotte, Senior Economist, IMF
Ksenia Koloskova, Senior Economist, IMF
Sweta C. Saxena, Senior Economist, IMF
Discussant
Caglar Ozden, Lead Economist, The World Bank
Host
Michael Clemens
Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development
While short-terms effects from migration have received much attention over the years, Florence Jaumotte and her co-authors examine the longer-term impact of migration on the GDP per capita, and hence standards of living, of receiving advanced economies. Carefully addressingthe risk of reverse causality, the paper finds that immigration significantly increases the GDP per capita of host economies, mostly by raising productivity. Both high- and low-skilled migrants can contribute to raise productivity, likely through skill complementarity in the case of lower-skilled migrants. They also find the gains from immigration appear to be broadly shared across the population.
