Estimating the Effect of Emigration from Poland on Polish Wages

This paper contributes to a small but growing literature that studies the effects emigration has on the labour markets of the sending countries, focusing on Poland for the period 1998-2007. The researchers develop a simple model that guides the empirical specification and provides for a clear interpretation of the estimates. The data are unique, in that they contain information about household members who are currently living abroad, allowing the writers to calculate region-specific emigration rates, and to estimate the effect that emigration has on wages using within-region variation.