Events

Joan Monras
Barcelona GSE (visiting Princeton)

We document that international migrants concentrate more in expensive cities – the more so, the lower the prices in their origin countries are – and consume less locally than comparable natives. We rationalize this empirical evidence by introducing a quantitative spatial equilibrium model, in which a part of immigrants’ income goes towards consumption in their origin countries. Using counterfactual simulations, we show that, due to this novel consumption channel, immigrants move economic activity toward expensive, high-productivity locations. This leads to a more efficient spatial allocation of labor and, as a result, increases the aggregate output and welfare of natives.

This is a joint seminar organized by HKU, CUHK, City U, HKUST and Lingnan U.

Please contact Xiameng PAN at xmpan@connect.hku.hk for registration.