Strong versus weak ties in migration

Giulietti, Corrado; Wahba, Jackline; Zénou, Yves

doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2018.02.006

Cited by 59 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…al. 2013;Giulietti, Wahba and Zenou 2014;Granovetter 1973). People who are similar to each other are likely to become friends (Mouw 2003) and if those social networks are not well informed about good job possibilities, as can be the case with rural migrant workers in China (Chen 2014;Long et.…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In that vein, they are analogous to human capital investments in areas such as education, training and mobility that yield future returns. Informal search procedures can also involve reciprocal social capital exchanges, although the quality of that information can depend upon who provides the information (Giulietti, Wahba and Zenou 2014). Low quality networks can foster low quality job searches.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The use and impact of job search procedures by migrant workers in China

Fang

Gunderson

Lin

2016

China Economic Review

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in ABSTRACT The Use and Impact of Job Search Procedures by Migrant Workers in China *Job search procedures are a form of human capital investment in that they involve current investments to enhance future returns, analogous to human capital investments in areas such as education, training and mobility that yield future returns. While the theoretical and empirical literature on job search is extensive, most of it involves developed countries. There is less on developing countries and very little on China involving migrant workers in spite of their growing practical and policy importance and the fact that they are constantly engaging in job search. This paper examines the use and impact of job search procedures used by migrant workers in China by taking advantage of a rich data set on migrant workers that has information on their job search procedure as well as a wide array of other personal and human capital characteristics. Our OLS estimates indicate that there is no effect on earnings of using informal versus formal job search procedures for migrant workers in China. However, our IV results suggest that the OLS estimates are subject to severe selection bias from the fact that the choice of job search procedure is endogenous, associated with unobservable factors that affect the choice of informal versus formal procedures and that affect the earnings outcome. Our three different IV estimates designed to deal with this bias indicate that informal procedures (various aspects of family and friends) are associated with earnings that are 33 to 43 percent below the uses of more formal procedures. The decomposition results indicate that the most important variable contributing to pay advantage of those who use formal as opposed to informal procedures is education. In sum, our results suggest that policies to encourage or facilitate migrant workers using more formal job search procedures and reducing barriers that compel them to rely on informal procedures can yield better job matches with higher earnings.JEL Classification: J31, J61, J64

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Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use and impact of job search procedures by migrant workers in China

Fang

Gunderson

Lin

2016

China Economic Review

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“…A person may have one person from whom she would ask to borrow money when necessary, and a different friend to whom she would turn for advice; or these two relationships could be with the same person. More generally the idea is that, for some 14 Weak ties have also been shown to be important in criminal behaviors (Patacchini and Zenou (2008)) and migration decisions (Giulietti, Wahba and Zenou (2014)). For some background on the empirics of weak ties in the labor market, see Topa (2011).…”

Section: Tie Strength and Multigraphsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Economic Consequences of Social-Network Structure

Jackson

Rogers

Zénou

2017

Journal of Economic Literature

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347

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We survey the literature on the economic consequences of the structure of social networks. We develop a taxonomy of 'macro' and 'micro' characteristics of social interaction networks and discuss both the theoretical and empirical findings concerning the role of those characteristics in determining learning, diffusion, decisions, and resulting behaviors. We also discuss the challenges of accounting for the endogeneity of networks in assessing the relationship between the patterns of interactions and behaviors.

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“…Young workers appear to benefit from shorter transitions into the first jobs and better labor market outcomes after a few years into the job. Giulietti et al (2014) look at rural to urban migration in China and find that strong and weak ties act as complements in influencing the decision to migrate. Keeping this rich literature in mind, in Goel and Lang (2009), we tested the empirical validity of two different measures of network strength: a) the traditional (weak ties) measure consisting of persons from the immigrant's country of origin living in his locality, and b) the presence of close ties captured by at least one relative or friend in Canada at the time of entry.…”

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confidence: 99%

Social Ties and the Job Search of Recent Immigrants

Goel

Lang

2017

ILR Review

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S Social Ties and the Job Search of Recent ImmigrantsIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. In this paper we highlight a specific mechanism through which social networks help in job search. We characterize the strength of a network by its likelihood of providing a job offer. Using a theoretical model we show that the wage differential in jobs found using networks versus those found using formal channels, decreases as the network becomes stronger. We verify this result for recent immigrants to Canada for whom a strong network is captured by the presence of a 'close tie.' Furthermore, structural estimates confirm that the presence of a close tie operates by increasing the likelihood of generating a job offer from the network rather than by altering the wage distribution from which an offer is drawn.JEL Classification: J3

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Strong versus weak ties in migration

Cited by 59 publications

References 33 publications

The use and impact of job search procedures by migrant workers in China

The use and impact of job search procedures by migrant workers in China

The Economic Consequences of Social-Network Structure

Social Ties and the Job Search of Recent Immigrants

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