Fears and Tears : Should More People Be Moving within and from Developing Countries, and What Stops This Movement?
Only one in seven of the world’s population has ever migrated, despite the enormous gains in income possible through international and internal movement. This paper examines the evidence for different explanations given in the economics literature...
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2022
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099424207252223879/IDU05c47432a0e34c04a9e0a0a600eb85c133d63 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37759 |
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okr-10986-377592022-07-27T05:10:54Z Fears and Tears : Should More People Be Moving within and from Developing Countries, and What Stops This Movement? McKenzie, David BENEFITS OF URBANIZATION ATTACHMENT TO HOME CONSTRAINTS THAT LIMIT MOVEMENT WEALTH AND WELLBEING PSYCHOLOGICAL UNCERTAINTY OF RELOCATION INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION INTERNAL RELOCATION MIGRATION POLICY ECONOMICS OF MIGRATION Only one in seven of the world’s population has ever migrated, despite the enormous gains in income possible through international and internal movement. This paper examines the evidence for different explanations given in the economics literature for this lack of movement and their implications for policy. Incorrect information about the gains to migrating, liquidity constraints that prevent poor people paying the costs of moving, and high costs of movement arising from both physical transportation costs and policy barriers all inhibit movement and offer scope for policy efforts to inform, provide credit, and lower moving costs. However, the economics literature has paid less attention to the fears people have when faced with the uncertainty of moving to a new place, and to the reasons behind the tears they shed when moving. While these tears reveal the attachment people have to particular places, this attachment is not fixed, but itself changes with migration experiences. Psychological factors such as a bias toward the status quo and the inability to picture what one is giving up by not migrating can result in people not moving, even when they would benefit from movement and are not constrained by finances or policy barriers from doing so. This suggests new avenues for policy interventions that can help individuals better visualize the opportunity costs of not moving, alleviate their uncertainties, and help shift their default behavior from not migrating. 2022-07-26T12:48:30Z 2022-07-26T12:48:30Z 2022-07 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099424207252223879/IDU05c47432a0e34c04a9e0a0a600eb85c133d63 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37759 English Policy Research Working Papers;10128 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
BENEFITS OF URBANIZATION ATTACHMENT TO HOME CONSTRAINTS THAT LIMIT MOVEMENT WEALTH AND WELLBEING PSYCHOLOGICAL UNCERTAINTY OF RELOCATION INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION INTERNAL RELOCATION MIGRATION POLICY ECONOMICS OF MIGRATION |
| spellingShingle |
BENEFITS OF URBANIZATION ATTACHMENT TO HOME CONSTRAINTS THAT LIMIT MOVEMENT WEALTH AND WELLBEING PSYCHOLOGICAL UNCERTAINTY OF RELOCATION INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION INTERNAL RELOCATION MIGRATION POLICY ECONOMICS OF MIGRATION McKenzie, David Fears and Tears : Should More People Be Moving within and from Developing Countries, and What Stops This Movement? |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Papers;10128 |
| description |
Only one in seven of the world’s
population has ever migrated, despite the enormous gains in
income possible through international and internal movement.
This paper examines the evidence for different explanations
given in the economics literature for this lack of movement
and their implications for policy. Incorrect information
about the gains to migrating, liquidity constraints that
prevent poor people paying the costs of moving, and high
costs of movement arising from both physical transportation
costs and policy barriers all inhibit movement and offer
scope for policy efforts to inform, provide credit, and
lower moving costs. However, the economics literature has
paid less attention to the fears people have when faced with
the uncertainty of moving to a new place, and to the reasons
behind the tears they shed when moving. While these tears
reveal the attachment people have to particular places, this
attachment is not fixed, but itself changes with migration
experiences. Psychological factors such as a bias toward the
status quo and the inability to picture what one is giving
up by not migrating can result in people not moving, even
when they would benefit from movement and are not
constrained by finances or policy barriers from doing so.
This suggests new avenues for policy interventions that can
help individuals better visualize the opportunity costs of
not moving, alleviate their uncertainties, and help shift
their default behavior from not migrating. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
McKenzie, David |
| author_facet |
McKenzie, David |
| author_sort |
McKenzie, David |
| title |
Fears and Tears : Should More People Be Moving within and from Developing Countries, and What Stops This Movement? |
| title_short |
Fears and Tears : Should More People Be Moving within and from Developing Countries, and What Stops This Movement? |
| title_full |
Fears and Tears : Should More People Be Moving within and from Developing Countries, and What Stops This Movement? |
| title_fullStr |
Fears and Tears : Should More People Be Moving within and from Developing Countries, and What Stops This Movement? |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Fears and Tears : Should More People Be Moving within and from Developing Countries, and What Stops This Movement? |
| title_sort |
fears and tears : should more people be moving within and from developing countries, and what stops this movement? |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2022 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099424207252223879/IDU05c47432a0e34c04a9e0a0a600eb85c133d63 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37759 |
| _version_ |
1764487853281116160 |