Zainab Iftikhar - Essays on the Effects of Migration and Demographic Factors on Labour Markets and Human Capital Accumulation

Le Recteur de l'Université catholique de Louvain fait savoir que

Mme Zainab Iftikhar

soutiendra publiquement sa dissertation pour l'obtention du titre de Docteur en sciences Economiques et de gestion

« Essays on the Effects of Migration and Demographic Factors on Labour Markets and Human Capital Accumulation »

Summary
This thesis studies the effects of international migration and norms on demographic trends, welfare, human capital accumulation and labour market outcomes in different countries. The first chapter discusses the effect of immigration on natives’ welfare in Germany. We show that in a two-sector economy with tradable and nontradable goods, with labour market frictions and accounting for post-immigration changes in the aggregate supply and demand of the non-tradable good generates welfare gains from immigration. The second chapter revisits the effect of brain drain on inequality and development in sub-Saharan African countries. The study suggest that brain drain leads to income losses in low-skilled workers and increased inequality between high skilled and low skilled workers when the large informal sector in the region and search frictions in labour market are accounted for. The size of income loss depends on the technological gap between formal and informal sector and on education technology in a country. The last chapter quantifies the effect of fertility norms on the education of the children in Pakistan. It proposes that fertility norms govern women’s fertility responses to changes in economic development. The study also concludes that less educated women benefit more in terms of investment in education of children from improvement in economic (wage) and social development, where social development implies lower fertility norms.

Membres du jury 
Professeur David de la Croix (UCL), promoteur et secrétaire
Professeur Christiane Clemens (Bielefeld University), promoteur
Professeur Frédéric Docquier (UCL)
Professeur Holger Strulik (University of Göttingen)
Assistant Prof. Paula Gobbi (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Professeur Gerald Willmann (Bielefeld University), président du jury