Frédéric Docquier
Biographic Data
| ID | 968330 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Frédéric Docquier |
| GIVEN NAMES | Frédéric |
| FAMILY NAME | Docquier |
| SIGNATURE | DOCQUIER F |
| AFFILIATIONS | UCLouvain |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3581-6141 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 66 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 624 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 65 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Populism and the Skill-Content of Globalization
The Vicious Circle of Xenophobia
The vicious circle of xenophobia
We investigate the bidirectional relationship between immigration and right-wing populism, which we characterize as a self-reinforcing dynamic process where anti-immigrant rhetoric and populist policies lead to a deterioration in the average education and skill level of immigrants. The deterioration in the ratio of high-skill to low-skill immigrants in turn fuels populist support and anti-immigration attitudes, creating what we call “the vicious …
New York, Abu Dhabi, London, or stay at home? Using a cross-nested logit model to identify complex substitution patterns in migration
We propose a cross-nested logit (CNL) approach to investigate how individuals adjust their migration decisions in response to changes in the global landscape. In contrast to the widely used logit model, the CNL enables more intricate substitution patterns among destinations. Leveraging migration aspiration data from India, we demonstrate that the CNL approach outperforms competing approaches in terms of model fit and predictive accuracy. It revea…
The within-country distribution of brain drain and brain gain effects
Existing empirical literature provides converging evidence that selective emigration enhances human capital accumulation in the world's poorest countries. However, the within-country distribution of such brain gain effects has received limited attention. Focusing on Senegal, we provide evidence that the brain gain mechanism primarily benefits the wealthiest regions that are internationally connected and have better access to education. Conversely…
Spatial Inequality, Poverty and Informality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Cross-border mobility responses to Covid-19 in Europe
BACKGROUND: Assessing the impact of government responses to Covid-19 is crucial to contain the pandemic and improve preparedness for future crises. We investigate here the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and infection threats on the daily evolution of cross-border movements of people during the Covid-19 pandemic. We use a unique database on Facebook users' mobility, and rely on regression and machine learning models to identify …
Populism and the Skill-Content of Globalization
The geography of climate migration
In this paper, we investigate the long-term effects of climate change on the mobility of working-age people. We use a world economy model that covers almost all the countries around the world, and distinguishes between rural and urban regions as well as between flooded and unflooded areas. The model is calibrated to match international and internal mobility data by education level for the last 30 years, and is then simulated under climate change …
Special Issue on Climate Migration
How do weather shocks influence human mobility and poverty, and how will long-term climate change affect future migration over the course of the 21st century? These questions have gained unprecedented attention in public debates as global warming is already having severe impacts around the world, and prospects for the coming decades get worse. Low-latitude countries in general, and their agricultural areas in particular, have contributed the leas…
Covid-19 crisis management in Luxembourg
We develop an epidemionomic model that jointly analyzes the health and economic responses to the COVID-19 crisis and to the related containment and public health policy measures implemented in Luxembourg. The model has been used to produce nowcasts and forecasts at various stages of the crisis. We focus here on two key moments in time, namely the deconfinement period following the first lockdown, and the onset of the second wave. In May 2020, we …
Weather shocks and migration intentions in Western Africa
We use a multilevel approach to investigate whether a general and robust relationship between weather shocks and (internal and international) migration intentions can be uncovered in Western African countries. We combine individual survey data with measures of localized weather shocks for 13 countries over the 2008–2016 period. A meta-analysis on results from about 51,000 regressions is conducted to identify the specification of weather anomalies…
Weather Shocks and Migration Intentions in Western Africa
Do Emigrants Self-Select Along Cultural Traits? Evidence from the Mena Countries
This article empirically investigates whether emigrants from MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries self-select along two cultural traits: religiosity and gender-egalitarian attitudes. Using Gallup World Poll data on individual opinions and beliefs and migration aspirations, we find that individuals who intend to emigrate to high-income countries exhibit significantly lower levels of religiosity than the rest of the population. They also s…
Geography of skills and global inequality
International Migration
Whereas the impact of trade relations on conflict has been studied extensively, this is not the case for the impact of international migration. The latter might influence the size of expected costs and benefits, and hence the likelihood of military conflict between countries. In this paper, we discuss the channels through which bilateral migration can affect the prevalence of interstate military conflict. We then estimate migration’s impact on co…
Labor Market Effects of Demographic Shifts and Migration in OECD Countries
The labor force of each industrial country is being shaped by three forces: ageing, education and migration. Drawing on a new database for the OECD countries and a standard analytical framework, this paper focuses on the relative and aggregate effects of these three forces on wages across different skill and age groups over 2000 to 2010. The variation in the age and educational structure of the labor force emerges as the dominant influence on wag…
The Changing Structure of Immigration to the OECD
Birthplace Diversity and Economic Growth
This paper empirically investigates the impact of birthplace diversity on economic growth. We use panel data on US states over the 1960–2010 period. This rich data set allows us to better deal with endogeneity issues and to conduct a large set of robustness checks. Our results suggest that diversity among college-educated immigrants positively affects economic growth. We provide converging evidence pointing at the existence of skill complementari…
Migration and development
The welfare impact of global migration in OECD countries
Emigration and democracy
Contract Rules in Codes and Statutes
A Global Assessment of Human Capital Mobility
Discussions of high-skilled mobility typically evoke migration patterns from poorer to wealthier countries, which ignore movements to and between developing countries. This paper presents, for the first time, a global overview of human capital mobility through bilateral migration stocks by gender and education in 1990 and 2000, and calculation of nuanced brain drain indicators. Building on newly collated data, the paper uses a novel estimation pr…
Replication package for
Replication Package for "Populism and the Skill-Content of Globalization", by Frédéric Docquier, Stefano Iandolo, Hillel Rapoport, Riccardo Turati, and Gonzague Vannoorenberghe
Brain Drain and Human Capital Formation in Developing Countries
Using new data on emigration rates by education level, we examine the impact of brain drain migration on human capital formation in developing countries. We find evidence of a positive effect of skilled migration prospects on gross human capital formation in a cross-section of 127 countries. For each country of the sample we then estimate the net effect of the brain drain using counterfactual simulations. Countries combining relatively low levels…
Brain drain and economic growth
Diasporas
The Cross-country Determinants of Potential and Actual Migration
In this study, we use cross-country bilateral data to quantify a two-step process of international migration and its aggregate determinants. We first analyze which country-specific factors affect the probability that individuals join the pool of potential (aspiring) migrants. Then, we consider the bilateral and destination country factors that affect the frequency at which potential migrants turn into actual migrants. Using information on potenti…
Emigration and democracy
Migration and development
A Global Assessment of Human Capital Mobility
The Labour Market Effects of Immigration and Emigration in OECD Countries
In this paper, we quantify the labor market effects of migration flows in OECD countries during the 1990's based on a new global database on the bilateral stock of migrants, by education level. We simulate various outcomes using an aggregate model of labor markets, parameterized by a range of estimates from the literature. We find that immigration had a positive effect on the wages of less educated natives and it increased or left unchanged the a…
A Gendered Assessment of Highly Skilled Emigration
Although women form a large and increasing proportion of international migrants, women's mobility has generally been overlooked in the literature. Quantifying and characterizing female migration should lead to a better understanding of the forces that shape international migration. We build an original data set providing gender-disaggregated indicators of international migration by educational attainment for 195 source countries in 1990 and 2000.…
Do Emigrants Self-Select Along Cultural Traits? Evidence from the Mena Countries
This article empirically investigates whether emigrants from MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries self-select along two cultural traits: religiosity and gender-egalitarian attitudes. Using Gallup World Poll data on individual opinions and beliefs and migration aspirations, we find that individuals who intend to emigrate to high-income countries exhibit significantly lower levels of religiosity than the rest of the population. They also s…
Weather shocks and migration intentions in Western Africa
We use a multilevel approach to investigate whether a general and robust relationship between weather shocks and (internal and international) migration intentions can be uncovered in Western African countries. We combine individual survey data with measures of localized weather shocks for 13 countries over the 2008–2016 period. A meta-analysis on results from about 51,000 regressions is conducted to identify the specification of weather anomalies…
Are Skilled Women More Migratory than Skilled Men
Ethnic discrimination and the migration of skilled labor
A Panel Data Analysis of the Brain Gain
Is migration a good substitute for education subsidies
Income Distribution, Non‐convexities and the Fertility–Income Relationship
This paper presents a model of inequality, income determination and fertility, that is consistent with aggregated stylized facts and individual survey data on fertility and income. It shows that indivisibilities in human capital investments limit the possibility of trade‐off between the quality and the quantity of children. This generates a non‐monotonic relationship between income and fertility at the micro level. On the aggregate, the total fer…
Bribing votes
Geography of skills and global inequality
Remittances and inequality
Should the US have locked heaven’s door
Fiscal Policy and Educational Attainment in the United States
In this paper we investigate the consequences of the rise in educational attainment on US generational accounts. We build on the 1995 existing accounts and disaggregate them per schooling level. Contrary to medium‐ and high‐skill newborns, we show that low‐skill newborns are characterized by negative generational accounts. Compared to the results obtained with the traditional methodology, our baseline forecast is more optimistic. Nevertheless, th…
L'immigration « choisie » face aux défis économiques du vieillissement démographique
Les retombées économiques potentielles des politiques de « quotas choisis » sont largement méconnues. Elles affectent les trois catégories d’acteurs concernées : les migrants, la population des pays d’origine et les natifs dans les pays d’accueil. À partir d’un modèle d’équilibre général avec agents hétérogènes, cet article aborde les conséquences de l’immigration de remplacement sur l’économie française. Par rapport à un scénario de référence qu…
Union européenne et migrations internationales
Cet article repose sur une base de données originale mesurant les stocks et les taux d’émigration par niveau de qualification pour tous les pays du monde et pour la majorité des territoires dépendants en 1990 et en 2000 (Docquier et Marfouk [2005]). Nous analysons ici le rôle de l’Union européenne à quinze membres ( ue 15) dans la mobilité internationale des travailleurs qualifiés. Par rapport au reste de l’ ocde , l’ ue 15 se distingue par la fa…
Spatial Inequality, Poverty and Informality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Birthplace Diversity and Economic Growth
This paper empirically investigates the impact of birthplace diversity on economic growth. We use panel data on US states over the 1960–2010 period. This rich data set allows us to better deal with endogeneity issues and to conduct a large set of robustness checks. Our results suggest that diversity among college-educated immigrants positively affects economic growth. We provide converging evidence pointing at the existence of skill complementari…
Consommation, épargne et accumulation dans la transition démographique
[fre] En utilisant deux modèles, l'un de croissance optimale, l'autre à générations imbriquées, on s'efforce d'étudier l'impact sur la consommation moyenne, l'épargne et, indirectement, sur les inégalités entre générations du vieillissement démographique. Il résulte de l'exemple français que la trajectoire optimale face aux changements de population requiert une élévation du taux d'épargne d'ici 2050. Or, à politique inchangée, c'est plutôt l'i…
Fédéralisme fiscal dans un modèle de zone monétaire optimale
Beine Michel, Docquier Frédéric. Fédéralisme fiscal dans un modèle de zone monétaire optimale. In: Revue économique, volume 48, n°3, 1997. pp. 519-527
Are migrant minorities strategically self-selected
Education Subsidies, Social Security and Growth
We develop a three‐period overlapping‐generations model in which individual decisions about education are the engine of growth. In this setting, we investigate the normative role of education subsidies and old age pensions. Calibrating this model on empirical data, it is shown that the case for positive pension benefits is rather weak on the optimal path. An important part of education subsidies should be financed by lump‐sum taxes on retirees. W…
Croissance, redistribution et inégalités dans un modèle de fuite des cerveaux
Docquier Frédéric, Rapoport Hillel. Croissance, redistribution et inégalités dans un modèle de fuite des cerveaux. In: Revue économique, volume 50, n°3, 1999. pp. 499-510
Brain drain and economic growth
Bribing votes
Vieillissement et inégalités intergénérationnelles en France. Une approche par l'équilibre général
[fre] Cet article examine l'impact du vieillissement démographique et de la politique budgétaire sur le bien-être des générations successives. Pour ce faire, on développe un modèle d'équilibre général à générations imbriquées. Ce dernier reproduit de façon très fine les projections de la structure de la population à l'horizon 2050 de l'INSEE, et tient par conséquent compte de la hausse de l'espérance de vie. La prise en compte de l'incertitude su…
Vieillissement et inégalités intergénérationnelles en France
This paper investigates the impact of demographic shocks and budgetary policy on the welfare of all generations. For this purpose, we build a large scale OLG model that captures most crucial variables for the analysis of population shocks conse- quences in France. We introduce life uncertainty (implying precautionary saving) and a bequest motive (stimulating wealth accumulation at old age) so as to repro- duce realistic wealth profiles per age. T…
Vieillissement et inégalités intergénérationnelles en France
Cet article examine l'impact du vieillissement démographique et de la politique budgétaire sur le bien-Ãatre des générations successives. Pour ce faire, on développe un modà ̈le d'équilibre général à générations imbriquées. Ce dernier reproduit de façon trà ̈s fine les projections de la structure de la population à l'horizon 2050 de l'INSEE, et tient par conséquent compte de la hausse de l'espérance de vie. La prise en compte de l'incertitude sur…
Ethnic discrimination and the migration of skilled labor
Skilled Migration
In this paper we focus on the consequences of skilled migration for source (developing) countries. We rst present new evidence on the magnitude of the "brain drain" at the international level and then discuss its direct and indirect eects on human capital formation in developing countries in a unied stylized model. Finally we turn to policy implications, with emphasis on migration and education policy in a context of international migration
Measuring the International Mobility of Skilled Workers (1990–2000)
Until recently, there has been no systematic empirical assessment of the economic impact of the brain drain. Despite many case studies and anecdotal evidence, the main reason for this seems to be the lack of harmonized international data on migration by country of origin and education level. An exception is the paper by Carrington and Detragiache (1998), which provided skilled migration rates for 61 developing countries in 1990. This study relies…
Debt-sharing and Secession
This paper investigates one of the most important financial issues arising from a secession or a country partitioning namely the sharing of the national public debt. Extending Drà ̈ze's distributive neutrality condition, we use the generational accounting technique and propose a dynamic debt-sharing criterion which takes into account both the true debt future generations inherit and their contributive capacity. The equivalence with Drà ̈ze's stat…
Income Distribution, Non‐convexities and the Fertility–Income Relationship
This paper presents a model of inequality, income determination and fertility, that is consistent with aggregated stylized facts and individual survey data on fertility and income. It shows that indivisibilities in human capital investments limit the possibility of trade‐off between the quality and the quantity of children. This generates a non‐monotonic relationship between income and fertility at the micro level. On the aggregate, the total fer…
L'immigration « choisie » face aux défis économiques du vieillissement démographique
Les retombées économiques potentielles des politiques de « quotas choisis » sont largement méconnues. Elles affectent les trois catégories d’acteurs concernées : les migrants, la population des pays d’origine et les natifs dans les pays d’accueil. À partir d’un modèle d’équilibre général avec agents hétérogènes, cet article aborde les conséquences de l’immigration de remplacement sur l’économie française. Par rapport à un scénario de référence qu…
Union européenne et migrations internationales
Cet article repose sur une base de données originale mesurant les stocks et les taux d’émigration par niveau de qualification pour tous les pays du monde et pour la majorité des territoires dépendants en 1990 et en 2000 (Docquier et Marfouk [2005]). Nous analysons ici le rôle de l’Union européenne à quinze membres ( ue 15) dans la mobilité internationale des travailleurs qualifiés. Par rapport au reste de l’ ocde , l’ ue 15 se distingue par la fa…
Chapter 17 The Economics of Migrants' Remittances
Measuring International Skilled Migration
Measuring International Skilled Migration: A New Database Controlling for Age of Entry Michel Beine, Frederic Docquier, and Hillel Rapoport Recent data on international migration of skilled workers define skilled migrants by education level without distinguishing whether they acquired their education in the home or the host country. Using these data and a simple gravity model to estimate the age-of-entry structure of the remaining 23 percent, alt…
Brain Drain in Developing Countries
An original data set on international migration by educational attainment for 1990 and 2000 is used to analyze the determinants of brain drain from developing countries. The analysis starts with a simple decomposition of the brain drain in two multiplicative components, the degree of openness of sending countries (measured by the average emigration rate) and the schooling gap (measured by the education level of emigrants compared with natives). R…
Impact d'une immigration « choisie » sur la fuite des cerveaux des pays d'origine
Dans cet article, nous développons un modà ̈le économétrique permettant de\nprojeter les niveaux de capital humain et dâ émigration qualifiée de tous les pays du\nmonde. Nos projections révà ̈lent quâ à politique dâ immigration inchangée et sous\nlâ impulsion de la hausse attendue des niveaux de capital humain, les taux de fuite\ndes cerveaux devraient baisser légà ̈rement dans les prochaines décennies. Si la\nFrance mà ̈ne une politique dâ immig…
Fiscal Policy and Educational Attainment in the United States
In this paper we investigate the consequences of the rise in educational attainment on US generational accounts. We build on the 1995 existing accounts and disaggregate them per schooling level. Contrary to medium‐ and high‐skill newborns, we show that low‐skill newborns are characterized by negative generational accounts. Compared to the results obtained with the traditional methodology, our baseline forecast is more optimistic. Nevertheless, th…
HIV Pandemic, Medical Brain Drain, and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Country-level longitudinal data at three-year intervals over 1990–2004 are used to analyze the factors affecting emigration of physicians from Sub-Saharan countries and the effects of this medical brain drain on life expectancy and number of deaths due to AIDS. Data are compiled on emigrating African physicians from 16 receiving Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. A comprehensive longitudinal database is devel…
A Gendered Assessment Of The Brain Drain
This paper updates and extends the Docquier-Marfouk data set on inter-national migration by educational attainment. The authors use new sources, homogenize definitions of what a migrant is, and compute gender-disaggregated indicators of the brain drain. Emigration stocks and rates are provided by level of schooling and gender for 195 source countries in 1990 and 2000. The data set can be used to capture the recent trend in women's skilled migrati…
Is migration a good substitute for education subsidies
Economics (52 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (45 works) · Political science (42 works) · Demographic economics (31 works) · Economic growth (26 works) · Geography (24 works) · Development economics (20 works) · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth (19 works) · Emigration (17 works) · Labour economics (17 works)