Economic Growth, Inequality and Migration

Citation

Lindsay Lowell, B. (2005), "Economic Growth, Inequality and Migration", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 32 No. 5, pp. 483-484. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068290510591308

There are 18 research chapters in this volume that delves into a miscellany of issues in Australia and/or advanced economies, and in the developing world. Indeed, there are three distinct sections to the volume. The first section includes seven chapters that deal variously with the economic implications of inequality for economic growth, labor market integration, and policies. The second section includes six chapters that address migration issues of various stripes, albeit the sixth chapter in the section addresses migration only indirectly. The five articles in the third section include analyses of the relationship between economic growth with trade, capital accumulation, and debt.

The potential reader should not expect that there is a cumulative value to reading the entire volume, but rather is likely to be best rewarded by a judicious selection of chapters. The volume hangs together primarily because anyone interested in the generic question of economic growth will find that this or that chapter adds an intriguing insight. For example, the lead article by Akihito Asano does a good job of reviewing the literature on inequality and growth, while Ross Guest's analysis of Australia supports the expectation that inequality reduces growth in an advanced economy. Zhang and Harvie's analysis of China finds that restrictions on rural/urban mobility increase inequality, raising a rather specific policy mechanism in a unique developing economy. Other chapters in the first section suggest that median income is a better measure than per capita income and that equality, in the Brazilian case, equalizes power and inflationary forces. In short, here is some very interesting work on discrete aspects of inequality and growth.

The section on migration hangs together less well than the other two sections of the volume, but introduces valuable insights. João Ricardo Faria makes a case for an optimal tax on urban workers that can ease rural to urban migration. Amnon Levy suggests an immigration quota strategy based on a “feedback coefficient” between earlier legal migration and current job vacancies. In a different vein, Joan and John Rodgers' find that Australian men are less likely than Northern Americans to move in response to potential gains in lifetime income. Their list of explanations, including unemployment benefits or geography, is as intriguing as the analysis itself. Amnon Levy and Yacov Tsur's motivate an age at migration model based on expected returns, risk aversion, and the costs of assimilating. This model does reasonably well in helping explain pioneer versus late‐comer migration strategies, even if it otherwise makes explicit what might appear obvious.

So the specialist whose interests include these topics would find this a worthwhile volume for their library. And while this volume would not in and of itself be a great collection of readings for a graduate course in economic growth, or migration, or trade, it offers sets of papers that would be very valuable for such a purpose.