Does International Migration Promote Industrial Development? Evidence from Africa 1980–2010

ABSTRACT

This paper examines mainly how international migration affects industrial development in Africa. Using the migration dataset constructed by Brücker, Capuano and Marfouk in 2013, econometric estimations are implemented on a panel of 45 African countries over the period 1980–2010 based on the generalized method of moment estimators. Our results suggest that on average, emigration affects industrial development in Africa positively and significantly during the period of interest. Both low-skilled and medium-skilled emigrants affect more industrial development. The results also reveal that international financial flows, business networks and scientific networks are the channels through which migration affects industrial development.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration
• industrial development
• Africa

JEL CLASSIFICATIONS:

• F20
• L60
• 055

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Mawussé Komlagan Nézan Okey http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6434-4262

Notes

1 Szirmai (2012) has summarized empirical and theoretical arguments in favors of industrialization as the main engine of growth in economic development.

2 http://unu.edu/publications/articles/reflection-on-global-goals.html

3 This is due to data availability especially the lack of annual data series on migration.

4 However, their study focuses on knowledge-intensive industries.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mawussé Komlagan Nézan Okey

Dr Mawussé Komlagan Nézan Okey is an Associate Professor at the University of Lomé, Togo. His research interests include institutions, migration, public economics and several areas of development economics. He has several publications in those areas.