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Our Research

Migration

Population economics also encompasses the interactions of economics and demography, leading to research on topics such as population growth and decline, population ageing, population diversity, and migration.

Motu researchers are involved in a range of projects examining migration in a New Zealand context.

Our research focus

Motu’s current and recent research into migration includes:

Whether outcomes for immigrants improve post-arrival and how.
Impacts of immigration (and workforce composition more generally) on firm performance and on non-immigrants.
What causes population movements within New Zealand.

Publications

Housing Markets and Migration: Evidence from New Zealand

Authors: Dave Maré | Steven Stillman

Working Paper

New Zealand's large and volatile external migration flows generate significant year-to-year fluctuations in the demand for residential housing.

This paper uses population data from the 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006 New Zealand Censuses, house sales…

Persecution and migrant self-selection: evidence from the collapse of the communist bloc

Authors: Isabelle Sin | Ran Abramitzky | Travis Baseler

Working Paper

How does persecution affect who migrates? We analyze migrants’ self-selection out of the USSR and its satellite states before and after the collapse of Communism using census microdata from the three largest destination countries: Germany,…

The Impact of Immigration on the Labour Market Outcomes of New Zealanders

Authors: Dave Maré | Steven Stillman

Working Paper

This paper uses data from the 1996, 2001 and 2006 New Zealand Census to examine how the supply of immigrants in particular skill-groups affects the employment and wages of the New Zealand-born and of earlier…

Modelling Inter-urban Migration in an Open Population Setting: The Case of New Zealand

Authors: Dave Maré | Omoniyi Alimi | Jacques Poot

Article

We revisit the modelling of gross inter-urban migration flows in New Zealand. As in previous work, we identify a range of geographic, demographic, economic and climatic characteristics of urban areas, which are statistically significant determinants…

Residential assimilation of immigrants: A cohort approach

Authors: Dave Maré | Ruth Cameron (nee Pinkerton) | Jacques Poot

Article

This paper demonstrates the importance of distinguishing between successive arrival cohorts when assessing the impact of residential assimilation of immigrants on the spatial distribution of the population. We consider three cohorts of immigrants from each…

The gravity model of migration: the successful comeback of an ageing superstar in regional science

Authors: Dave Maré | Omoniyi Alimi | Jacques Poot | Michael P. Cameron

Article

For at least half a century, and building on observations first made a century earlier, the gravity model has been the most commonly-used paradigm for understanding gross migration flows between regions. This model owes its…

Residential Assimilation of Immigrants: A Cohort Approach

Authors: Dave Maré | Ruth Cameron (nee Pinkerton) | Jacques Poot

Working Paper

This paper measures the process of residential assimilation for three cohorts of immigrants from each of five countries of birth entering Auckland, New Zealand between 1991 and 2006. It tracks, and compares, the changes in…

The Geographical Mobility of Māori in New Zealand

Authors: Isabelle Sin | Steven Stillman

Working Paper

This paper describes the geographical location and internal mobility of the Māori ethnic group in New Zealand between 1991 and 2001.

It is often suggested that Māori are less mobile than other ethnic groups because of attachment to…

Moving to Jobs? Regional Employment Growth and Internal Migration 1986-2000

Authors: Dave Maré | Jason Timmins

Article

Migration is one of the ways that individuals can improve their chances of getting a job; it allows them to move to regions with better employment prospects. However, migration flows may also work against policies…

Migration and Mental Health: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Authors: Steven Stillman | David McKenzie

Article

People migrate to improve their well-being, whether through an expansion of economic and social opportunities or a reduction in persecution. Yet a large literature suggests that migration can be a very stressful process, with potentially…

Moving to Opportunity, Leaving Behind What? Evaluating the Initial Effects of a Migration Policy on Incomes and Poverty in Source Areas

Authors: Steven Stillman | David McKenzie

Article

Migration to New Zealand and consequent remittance inflows are dominant features of many Pacific Island countries. Evaluating the effect of these people and money flows on incomes and poverty in the Pacific is potentially complicated…

How Important is Selection? Experimental Vs Non-experimental Measures of the Income Gains from Migration

Authors: Steven Stillman | David McKenzie

Article

Measuring the gain in income from migration is complicated by non-random selection of migrants from the general population, making it hard to obtain an appropriate comparison group of non-migrants.

This paper uses a migrant lottery to…

Regional Labour Market Adjustment and the Movements of People

Authors: Dave Maré | Wai Kin Choy

Article

This review paper examines the link between internal migration and regional labour market adjustment. It outlines the motivation and scope of our enquiry, discusses the three key questions that we plan to pursue, reviews relevant…

Internal Migration and Regional Adjustment: Some Preliminary Issues

Authors: Dave Maré | Jason Timmins

Article

In this paper we examine the link between local labour market adjustment and internal migration. We use census data to provide a range of labour market indicators, and measures of movements of people between locations.…

Settlement Patterns and the Geographic Mobility of Recent Migrants to New Zealand

Authors: Dave Maré | Melanie Morten | Steven Stillman

Article

Twenty-three percent of New Zealand's population is foreign-born and 40 percent of migrants have arrived in the past ten years. Newly arriving migrants tend to settle in spatially concentrated areas and this is especially true…

What Explains the Wealth Gap Between Immigrants and the New Zealand Born?

Authors: Trinh Le | Steven Stillman

Article

Immigrants are typically found to have less wealth and hold it in different forms than the native born. These differences may affect both the economic assimilation of immigrants and overall portfolio allocation when immigrants are…

What Happens to Diet and Child Health when Migration Splits Households? Evidence from a Migration Lottery Program

Authors: Steven Stillman | David McKenzie

Article

The impact of migration on food security and child health is likely to differ depending on whether children themselves migrate or whether they remain behind while other household members migrate. However, existing studies have not…

Cities and Skills

Author: Dave Maré

Article

Workers in cities earn 33 percent more than their non-urban counterparts. A large amount of evidence suggests that this premium is not just the result of higher ability workers living in cities, which means that…

Information Flows and Migration: Recent Survey Evidence from the South Pacific

Authors: Steven Stillman | David McKenzie | Halahingano Rohorua

Article

Standard models of the migration decision-making assume potential migrants are well informed of the employment opportunities available in different labor markets, and decide whether or not to migrate on this basis.

This paper uses new survey…

Immigrant Selection and the Returns on Human Capital in New Zealand and Australia

Authors: Malathi Velamuri | Steven Stillman

Working Paper

Commissioned by the Department of Labour as IMSED Research Report.

This paper reports findings from the first part of a larger project examining for the New Zealand-born and Australian-born as well as immigrants the economic dimensions of the…

The Impact of Immigration on the Geographic Mobility of New Zealanders

Authors: Dave Maré | Steven Stillman

Working Paper

This report was produced on behalf of CReAM (Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, as CReAM Discussion Paper No 14/07.

This paper uses data from the New Zealand Census to examine how the supply of recent…

The Importance of Heterogeneity when Examining Immigrant Education-Occupation Mismatch: Evidence from New Zealand

Authors: Jacques Poot | Steven Stillman

Working Paper

Commissioned by the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration, London as CReAM Discussion Paper 23/10.

Many immigrants are overqualified in their first job after arrival in the host country. Education-occupation mismatch can affect the economic…

A Land of Milk and Honey with Streets Paved with Gold: Do Emigrants have Over-Optimistic Expectations about Incomes Abroad?

Authors: Steven Stillman | David McKenzie

Working Paper

Produced as IZA Discussion Paper 2788.

Millions of people emigrate every year in search of better economic and social opportunities. Anecdotal evidence suggests that emigrants may have over-optimistic expectations about the incomes they can earn abroad,…

Regional Labour Market Adjustment and the Movements of People: A Review

Authors: Dave Maré | Wai Kin Choy

Working Paper

This paper was produced as New Zealand Treasury Working Paper 01-08.

This review paper examines the link between internal migration and regional labour market adjustment. It outlines the motivation and scope of our enquiry, discusses the…

Worker mobility and wage dynamics

Authors: Dave Maré | Dean Hyslop

Working Paper

Produced as a LEED Research Report for Statistics New Zealand

Matched employer-employee data research has found that workers’ wages are affected by the characteristics of the firms they work in, and that higher skilled workers tend to be employed…

Internal Mobility in New Zealand

Authors: Dave Maré | Jason Timmins | William Power | Suzi Kerr

Working Paper

Produced as New Zealand Treasury Working Paper 04/1.

What characteristics push people to move and what pulls them to a new location? Evidence from the US has suggested that people are pulled to cities with a high population…

Natural Experiment Evidence on the Effect of Migration on Blood Pressure and Hypertension

Authors: Steven Stillman | David McKenzie

Working Paper

Produced as BREAD Working Paper 284 for the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development, Duke University, Durham, NC

Over 200 million people live outside their country of birth and experience large gains in material well-being by…

Accounting for Selectivity and Duration-Dependent Heterogeneity When Estimating the Impact of Emigration on Incomes and Poverty in Sending Areas

Authors: Steven Stillman | David McKenzie

Working Paper

This was produced as World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 5268

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…

Modelling Regional Labour Market Adjustment in New Zealand

Authors: Dave Maré | Peter Mawson | Wai Kin Choy

Working Paper

This report was produced for the New Zealand Treasury Working Paper 02/01.

This paper adopts a vector auto-regressive (VAR) approach to analyse the labour market adjustment mechanisms for 12 New Zealand regions over the period 1985 to 2001.…

Hiring New Ideas: International Migration and Firm Innovation in New Zealand

Authors: Dave Maré | Richard Fabling | Keith McLeod

Working Paper

Poor productivity performance has been identified as a significant issue for New Zealand, and innovation is seen as a key mechanism for improving productivity growth. Understanding the drivers of firm innovation therefore represents an important…

Immigration and Innovation

Authors: Dave Maré | Richard Fabling | Steven Stillman

Working Paper

We combine firm-level innovation data with area-level Census data to examine the relationship between local workforce characteristics, especially the presence of immigrants and local skills, and the likelihood of innovation by firms.

We examine a range…

The Labour Market Adjustment of Immigrants in New Zealand

Authors: Dave Maré | Steven Stillman

Working Paper

This paper uses data from the 1997-2007 New Zealand Income Survey to examine the economic performance of immigrants in New Zealand. Specifically, we use a synthetic cohort approach to examine how employment rates, hourly wages,…

What Explains the Wealth Gap Between Immigrants and the New Zealand Born?

Authors: Trinh Le | Steven Stillman

Working Paper

The Impact of Immigration on the Geographic Mobility of New Zealanders

Authors: Dave Maré | Steven Stillman

Working Paper

This paper uses data from the New Zealand Census to examine how the supply of recent migrants in particular skill groups affects the geographic mobility of the New Zealand-born and earlier migrants.

We identify the impact…

Settlement Patterns and the Geographic Mobility of Recent Migrants to New Zealand

Authors: Dave Maré | Melanie Morten | Steven Stillman

Working Paper

How Important is Selection? Experimental Vs Non-experimental Measures of the Income Gains from Migration

Authors: Steven Stillman | David McKenzie

Working Paper

Moving to Jobs

Authors: Dave Maré | Jason Timmins

Working Paper

Exporting, Innovation and the Role of Immigrants

Authors: Adam Jaffe | Dave Maré | Isabelle Sin | Lynda Sanderson | Richard Fabling

Working Paper

This research uses Statistics New Zealand"s Integrated Data Infrastructure and data from the Business Operations Survey to investigate the correlations at the firm level between

employee characteristics and firm international engagement, and
firm international engagement and innovation.
The…