Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP13311
Authors: Marco Casari; Andrea Ichino; Moti Michaeli; Maria De Paola; Ginevra Marandola; Vincenzo Scoppa
Abstract: Migration may cause not only a brain drain but also a “civicness” drain, leading to a poverty trap. Using migration choices of southern-Italian high-school students classified as Civic if not cheating in a die-roll experiment, we uncover a key role of local civicness (namely, average civicness in the class): a civicness drain is observed only at high and low local civicness. This pattern is predicted by our model in which Civic and Uncivic types balance hope vs. fear of migration outcomes, taking into account economic gains, risk preferences, and their beliefs about being considered Civic in the place of destination.
Keywords: Migration; Italy; Honesty; Game Experiments; Social Capital
JEL Codes: J61; C93; R23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| local civicness (H70) | migration behavior (F22) |
| high local civicness (H73) | migration behavior (F22) |
| low local civicness (H73) | migration behavior (F22) |
| intermediate levels of civicness (H79) | migration behavior (F22) |
| risk preferences (D81) | migration behavior (F22) |
| civicness drain at high civicness (H73) | migration behavior (F22) |
| civicness drain at low civicness (H73) | migration behavior (F22) |
| uncivicness drain at intermediate civicness (H73) | migration behavior (F22) |