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Regional Migration and Wage Inequality in the West African Economic and Monetary Union

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  • Esther Mirjam GIRSBERGER
  • Romuald MÉANGO
  • Hillel RAPOPORT

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of regional migration on average wages and wage inequality in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). We exploit a unique data from a unified labour force household survey which covers natives and migrants in the seven economic capitals of the region. We estimate the counterfactual wage distributions of UEMOA migrants in absence of migration to evaluate the effect of regional migration. We find that regional migration increases the average wage by 1.8% and it entails a decrease in inequality in the UEMOA region between -1.5% (for the Gini coefficient) and -4.5% (for the interquartile ratio). The decrease in inequality in the UEMOA region is driven by a reduction in inequality between countries, while the migration effect on within-inequality differs across countries and remains overall small. When accounting for possible general equilibrium effects of migration on stayers’ wages, we find a similar or even stronger decrease in inequality, yet a smaller increase in the average wage. With general equilibrium effects, the effect on the average wage is smaller because UEMOA migrants tend to be (negatively-)intermediately selected (both at origin and destination) and depress the average wage of natives in their destination and lead to a slight increase of the average wage among natives in their sending countries, with the former effect dominating. Moreover, regional migration in the UEMOA mostly flows from countries with low wages to countries with higher wages. In combination with the general equilibrium effects described above this leads to a larger decrease in between-country inequality than in a setting with exogenous wages.

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  • Esther Mirjam GIRSBERGER & Romuald MÉANGO & Hillel RAPOPORT, 2019. "Regional Migration and Wage Inequality in the West African Economic and Monetary Union," Working Paper 862b3861-d8f4-4f5f-bf73-c, Agence française de développement.
    • Handle: RePEc:avg:wpaper:fr9446
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    2. Simone Bertoli & Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport & Ilse Ruyssen, 2022. "Weather shocks and migration intentions in Western Africa: insights from a multilevel analysis [Do climate variations explain bilateral migration? A gravity model analysis]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(2), pages 289-323.
    3. Jingjing Qu & Aijun Li & Morié Guy-Roland N’Drin, 2023. "Measuring technology inequality across African countries using the concept of efficiency Gini coefficient," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 4107-4138, May.
    4. Girsberger, Esther Mirjam & Meango, Romuald, 2022. "The Puzzle of Educated Unemployment in West Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 15721, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    Keywords

    Afrique; Bénin; Burkina Faso; Côte d'Ivoire; Mali; Niger; Sénégal; Togo;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics

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