Emigration and democracy

Frédéric Docquier, FNRS and IRES, Université Catholique de Louvain
Elisabetta Lodigiani, CREA, Université du Luxembourg; and Centro Studi Luca d'’Agliano
Hillel Rapoport, CID, Harvard University; Bar-Ilan University; and EQUIPPE
Maurice Schiff, World Bank, Development Economics Research Group

Abstract. Migration is an important and yet neglected determinant of institutions. The paper documents the channels through which emigration affects home country institutions and considers dynamic-panel regressions for a large sample of developing countries. We fi…nd that emigration and human capital both increase democracy and economic freedom. This implies that unskilled (skilled) emigration has a positive (ambiguous) impact on institutional quality. Simulations show an impact of skilled emigration that is generally positive, signi…cant for a few countries in the short run and for many countries in the long run once incentive effects of emigration on human capital formation are accounted for.

JEL Codes: O1, F22.

Keywords: Migration, institutions, democracy, diaspora effects, brain drain.