Joint International Economics - UNU-CRIS Seminar by Adelina Sharipova on Multilateral Trade or Bilateral Labour Agreements: What Matters More for Migration?

The proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in recent decades reflects a deepening of their scope, with provisions extending far beyond traditional trade policies. An increasing number of these agreements include measures that ease access to labour mobility among member countries, reducing the administrative costs of crossing borders. This paper examines the impact of trade agreements and bilateral labour agreements (BLAs) on migration, focusing on the specific provisions within these agreements. Using a unique dataset combining bilateral migration stocks and flows (1960–2020), the World Bank's database of 400 trade agreements, and newly coded content from over 500 BLAs, the study offers empirical evidence on the role of agreement contents in shaping migration flows. By simultaneously analyzing the impact of RTAs and BLAs, the paper identifies key provisions within the agreements driving migration, corrects biases in prior research, and reveals heterogeneity based on countries' development levels.

This is a closed event. For further information, please contact Pascale Vantorre at pvantorre@cris.unu.edu