Korean migration to North America: some prices that matter

Abstract

The empirical migration literature has emphasized the role that differences in the return to human capital play in the migration decision. In this paper, we argue that many migrants are also concerned with differences in the return to the financial capital that they bring with them. One testable implication of the theory is that depreciation in the value of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar should cause some migrants to substitute Canada for the United States as their destination of choice. Using data on Korean immigration to Canada and the United States, we estimate a regression model to test this hypothesis. The statistical evidence strongly supports a conclusion that exchange rate movements can cause some migrants to substitute destinations.