{"title":"Wage arbitrage through skilled emigration: Evidence from the Pacific Islands","authors":"Satish Chand, Michael Clemens, Helen Dempster","doi":"10.1002/app5.355","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Skilled workers in poor countries earn wages a fraction of that of their counterparts in rich nations. Here, we estimate the opportunities for wage arbitrage from emigration of workers from the Pacific Islands into Australia and New Zealand. Our calculations, based on wages earned by graduate accountants, computer science graduates and cooks with Certificate III qualifications, reveal wage premiums of a factor of up to 10 from emigration. Likewise, the cost of training to Australian standards within the Pacific Islands is as little as a third of that in Australia meaning that the total factor of economic arbitrage is 30.</p>","PeriodicalId":45839,"journal":{"name":"Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies","volume":"9 3","pages":"430-446"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/app5.355","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/app5.355","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
Skilled workers in poor countries earn wages a fraction of that of their counterparts in rich nations. Here, we estimate the opportunities for wage arbitrage from emigration of workers from the Pacific Islands into Australia and New Zealand. Our calculations, based on wages earned by graduate accountants, computer science graduates and cooks with Certificate III qualifications, reveal wage premiums of a factor of up to 10 from emigration. Likewise, the cost of training to Australian standards within the Pacific Islands is as little as a third of that in Australia meaning that the total factor of economic arbitrage is 30.
期刊介绍:
Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies is the flagship journal of the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. It is a peer-reviewed journal that targets research in policy studies in Australia, Asia and the Pacific, across a discipline focus that includes economics, political science, governance, development and the environment. Specific themes of recent interest include health and education, aid, migration, inequality, poverty reduction, energy, climate and the environment, food policy, public administration, the role of the private sector in public policy, trade, foreign policy, natural resource management and development policy. Papers on a range of topics that speak to various disciplines, the region and policy makers are encouraged. The goal of the journal is to break down barriers across disciplines, and generate policy impact. Submissions will be reviewed on the basis of content, policy relevance and readability.