Economics and emigration: Trillion-dollar bills on the sidewalk?

Abstract

The gains from removing barriers to labor mobility, such as migration restrictions, could be massive. Using existing estimates, this article shows that the global welfare gains could be orders of magnitude larger than the gains from removing all remaining barriers to trade in both goods and capital. The article also discusses uncertainties in these estimates, including the possibility that negative externalities from emigration may offset some of the gains. Finally, it identifies key questions that economists need to address to better understand the gains from labor mobility and to develop policies to realize these gains. – AI-generated abstract.