Events

Professor Ying Feng
Department of Economics
National University of Singapore

We construct a new regional dataset integrating wage information with migration flow data, covering 1,257 regions across 76 countries over a span of six decades. Using this dataset, we document patterns of labor reallocation within countries over the life cycle of cohorts. By age 40, approximately 25\% of individuals no longer reside in their birth location—a pattern that holds across both high- and low-income countries. While migration generally flows toward higher-wage regions, nearly one-third of movers relocate to areas with lower wages. Assuming wage differences reflect productivity gaps, we estimate the contribution of labor mobility to aggregate growth. Over the life cycle of a typical cohort, observed migration to high-productivity regions explains only a 2-3% increase in countries’ average wage. We then develop a simple spatial model to quantify the gains from lowering moving costs while allowing the direction and magnitude of migration flows to adjust. This exercise yields larger aggregate gains in low-income countries when the extensive margin of migration is allowed to respond.