Essays in the Economics of Migration

Abstract

This thesis consists of three independent articles. In the first chapter, I test whether tipping points can explain observed workplace segregation between immigrants and natives in Germany over the period 1990-2010. I reject the hypothesis of tipping dynamics. Furthermore, I show that traditional tests of tipping points based on Regression Discontinuity Designs tend to over-reject the null hypothesis of no tipping relative to a procedure that correctly accounts for uncertainty in the location of the tipping point. In the second chapter, I study the effect of workplace segregation on the outcomes of immigrants in Germany. Starting one’s career in a workplace employing relatively many conationals lowers an immigrant’s subsequent employment rates, but does not affect wages conditional on employment. The effect appears to be driven by lower-quality coworker networks rather than differential accumulation of human capital as a result of the initial place of work. In the third chapter, I study the effect of rural-urban migration on labour market outcomes in Indonesia. I find that urban migrants are more likely to be employed than both siblings who stayed behind and observationally similar urban natives in the short-run and experience more rapid occupational upgrading than their siblings in the long run.