Many countries in Asia and the Pacific have experienced rapid economic growth and structural transformation in recent decades. Yet, some countries are still at an early stage of this structural transformation and face external conditions less favorable than those faced by the first movers when...

The Pacific islands have weak economic growth and limited structural change compared to the rest of developing Asia. Remoteness and low economic density are two causes. To mitigate these constraints, bilateral arrangements with Australia and New Zealand let Pacific workers seasonally migrate to...

High-skilled emigration is an emotive issue that in popular discourse is often referred to as brain drain, conjuring images of extremely negative impacts on developing countries. Recent discussions of brain gain, diaspora effects, and other advantages of migration have been used to argue against...

The impacts of international emigration and remittances on incomes and poverty in sending areas are increasingly studied with household survey data. But comparing households with and without emigrants is complicated by a triple-selectivity problem: first, households self-select into emigration;...

Measuring the gain in income from migration is complicated by non-random selection of migrants from the general population, making it difficult to obtain an appropriate comparison group of non-migrants. This paper uses a migrant lottery to overcome this problem, providing an experimental measure...

Lack of mobility of labor is likely the biggest distortion in global factor markets, resulting in large differences in the productivity and income a given worker can have in different places. As a result of this fact, facilitating emigration has the potential to be one of the most effective...

Lowering the cost of sending remittances has become a major goal of policy efforts in migration, and an area the World Bank has worked on across the globe. Two main channels for lowering these costs are regulatory reforms to promote competition and the introduction of new products; and efforts...

We use a migration lottery program to overcome the double-selectivity problems posed by migration. We compare a wide range of outcomes for the remaining household members of Tongan emigrants with those of members of similar households who were unsuccessful in the lottery, with the policy rules...