Barry McCormick

Overseas Work Experience, Savings and Entrepreneurship Amongst Return Migrants to LDCs

This paper contributes to a small but rapidly growing literature concerned with the potentially substantial implications of international migration for economic development in LDCs. We study the linkages between overseas employment, savings and entrepreneurial activity on return. In an econometric model of the probability of entrepreneurial activity, we find evidence supporting the hypotheses that both overseas savings, and the duration of stay overseas increase the probability of becoming an entrepreneur amongst literate returnees to Egypt. Amongst illiterate returnees, overseas savings alone increase the probability of becoming an entrepreneur. The results for literates suggest that skill acquisition overseas may matter more substantially than overcoming a savings constraint in explaining how overseas opportunities influence entrepreneurship on return. For illiterates, who usually accept menial positions overseas that offer little opportunity for learning, the opposite obtains.

DO COUNCIL HOUSING POLICIES REDUCE MIGRATION BETWEEN REGIONS

Data from the 1973 General Household Survey of Great Britain are used to examine whether the council house system which currently provides a dwelling for one British family in every three tends to discourage long-distance migration. Controls are introduced for various socioeconomic variables and the importance of occupation sector of employment age and education in explaining migration is discussed. Comparisons are also made between local movements and long-distance migration. The findings indicate that over longer distances council tenants have much lower migration rates than owner-occupiers.

Regional unemployment and labour mobility in the UK

This paper surveys analysis of the relationship between regional unemployment and labour mobility in the UK. A notable feature is the recent rise in the volatility of unemployment in the high wage region of the South East. This is explained by the relative growth of personal sector mortgage indebtedness in that region and greater consumption demand sensitivity to interest rate shocks. Regional unemployment rate differences are largely determined in the manual labour market and show only slight evidence of cyclically corrected convergence. This is underpinned by relatively low migration amongst manual workers, and little sensitivity of out-migration to regional labour market slack. Two regions have experienced persistent employment growth and attracted significant immigration of non-manual labour to low unemployment and increasing relative wage labour markets.

Economic costs of obesity and the case for government intervention

This paper was commissioned by the Foresight programme of the Office of Science and Innovation, Department of Trade and Industry

General training by firms, apprentice contracts, and public policy

Workers will not pay for general on-the-job training if contracts are not enforceable. Firms may if there are mobility frictions. Private information about worker productivities, however, prevents workers who quit receiving their marginal products elsewhere. Their new employers then receive external benefits from their training. In this paper, training firms increase profits by offering apprenticeships which commit firms to high wages for those trainees retained on completion. At these high wages, only good workers are retained. This signals their productivity and reduces the external benefits if they subsequently quit. Regulation of apprenticeship length (a historically important feature) enhances efficiency. Appropriate subsidies enhance it further.

The new pattern of regional unemployment: causes and policy significance

In common with most OECD countries, unemployment in Britain has differed significantly between regions, but the persistence of relative regional unemployment rates in Britain has been, until recently, particularly striking. However, during the I990-93 recession, the relative regional unemployment pattern changed significantly for the first time in seventy years. Our primary purpose here is to understand these recent changes and to examine what might be learned about the contribution of economic policies to the amelioration of both regional unemployment rate differentials and the amplitude of regional unemployment cycles. Finally we ask whether there are any policy lessons to be drawn from the recent cycles in regional unemployment patterns which might provide insight into the amplitude of macro-economic cycles.

Did Migration in the 1980s Narrow the North-South Divide?

This paper integrates empirical analysis of the decision to migrate from a region with that of destination choice. Thus, the authors are able to study how net migration, and not just gross outflows, are influenced by regional labor-market circumstances. The results suggest that relative regional wages rates, but not relative unemployment and vacancy rates, are effective in reallocating labor from regions experiencing adverse demand shocks. The authors find little evidence that manual labor is migrating from those regions with relatively high manual unemployment but that migration plays a more conventional role in the regional adjustment process for nonmanual workers. Copyright 1994 by The London School of Economics and Political Science.

Overseas Employment and Remittances to a Dual Economy

Overseas employment has become more commonplace, and remittances have increased in similar proportions. For poor countries, remittances often substantially influence domestic expenditures and real exchange rates. We study overseas employment, remittances and domestic underemployment in a simple general equilibrium model with a non-traded good and minimum wage. The influence of population growth, rural productivity, and family altruism are examined. If remittances per migrant exceed domestic productivity then multiple equilibria may occur exhibiting high or low overseas employment. We discuss how the equilibrium with highest overseas employment conditionally Pareto dominates the other equilibria, and analyse policy co-ordination.

A Theory of Signalling During Job Search, Employment Efficiency, and "Stigmatised" Jobs

This paper discusses why redundant skilled workers may be reluctant to accept interim unskilled jobs. If skilled work is more satisfying or less arduous for highly productive workers, then such workers invest more in moving quickly between skilled jobs. Thus, high productivity workers tend to search on-the-job, and if unemployed will specialise in job search, rather than take an interim position. If individual differences in productivity are known to the worker but not the potential employer, then search strategy may be used as a productivity signal, with more than the efficient proportion of workers searching on-the-job and too few accepting interim unskilled jobs. Optimal policy requires a subsidy on interim unskilled jobs.

The influence of pensions on job mobility

In this paper we construct a model of the loss of firm-specific capital suffered by employees with occupational pensions who change job. The simplest loss function may be represented as the product of job tenure and years to retirement. Estimates of logit equations for individual job search in Great Britain suggest that the effect of pension status can be satisfactorily captured by this simple loss function. These equations and others for job turnover indicate that membership of an occupational pension scheme substantially reduces job mobility.