This is a recurring event: View all events in the series “Research Seminar in Economics”
The Research Seminar in Economics is a platform for invited speakers to present their current research, thereby facilitating the exchange between speakers and faculty members of the City University of London.
It covers empirical as well as theoretical contributions across all fields of economics. The Research Seminar in Economics is usually held weekly during the academic term.
This event is open to Department of Economics faculty and postgraduate students. Please contact doruk.cetemen@city.ac.uk or nicolas.Navarrete-Hernandez@city.ac.uk for any enquiries.
Speaker
Abstract
How does mobile internet access affect the desire to emigrate and migration plans? To answer this question, we combine survey data on more than 600,000 individuals from 110 countries with data on worldwide 3G mobile internet rollout.
We show that an in- crease in mobile internet access increases desire to emigrate. This effect is particularly strong for higher-income individuals in low-income countries. We identify three potential mechanisms.
Access to the mobile internet lowers the cost of acquiring information and leads to a drop in perceived material well-being and trust in government.
Using municipal-level data from Spain, we also document that 3G rollout increased actual migration flows.
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