Social preferences and migration outcomes. Lecture by ZEF Distinguished Fellow Oded Stark

April 13, 2016 | 15:00 h - 16:30 h

We cordially invite you to a public lecture to be delivered by <link 2232,0,&tx_zefportal_staff%5bref%5d=2252&tx_zefportal_staff%5buid%5d=631&no_cache=1>Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Oded Stark</link>, Distinguished Fellow, ZEF.

The title of the lecture is: “Social preferences and migration outcomes”

The date and time are: Wednesday, April 13, 2016, 3:00 - 4:30 p.m.

The venue is: Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung / Center for Development Research (ZEF), Walter-Flex-Straße 3, 53113 Bonn (see <link 2316>map</link>), ground floor, conference room.

Abstract: In this lecture Oded Stark tracks the consequences of modeling migration as behavior that is motivated by individuals’ desire to align their location with their social preferences. The social preference studied in the lecture is distaste for relative deprivation, measured in both cardinal and ordinal ways. Location is conceived as social space, with individuals choosing to migrate if, as a result, their relative deprivation will be reduced, holding their incomes constant. Conditions are provided under which the associated dynamics reaches a steady state with no individual having an incentive to migrate; the number of periods it takes to reach a steady state is specified; and light is shed on the robustness of the steady state outcome. Because the pattern of migration when relative deprivation is measured cardinally differs from that when relative deprivation is measured in an ordinal manner, we will be able to infer the underlying type of preference from the observed pattern.

Speaker: Oded Stark is Distinguished Fellow at ZEF and University Professor at several universities in Europe and the US. He served as Professor of Economics (Chair in Development Economics) at the University of Oslo, and prior to that as Professor of Population and Economics and as the Director of the Migration and Development Program at Harvard University. He has written on applied microeconomic theory, development economics, population economics, the economics of migration, labor economics, evolutionary economics, urban economics, regional economics, welfare economics, and the theory of the firm. Oded Stark is a Humboldt Awardee, and a Presidential Professor of Economics (Poland).

Attending the lecture is free, and no registration is required.
We look forward to seeing you at ZEF on April 13, 2016.