Mobile phones, the internet, and emigration to OECD countries

Abstract

We examine to what extent mobile phones and the internet drive emigration to OECD countries. Using a panel of countries from 1990 to 2010 (when these technologies became more prevalent), we regress the stock of immigrants in OECD countries from source country i on the percentage of i's population having access to the internet as well as the percentage of the population having mobile phones. We find that the internet dissuades migration from i to the OECD whereas mobile phones encourage it. We then consider to what extent these technologies substitute or complement other informational linkages by interacting each technology in source country i with the stock of prior immigrants in destination country j. We find substitution effects between these technologies and past migration.