International migration and the role of institutions

We study the determinants of international migration with special attention to the role of institutional factors other than economic and demographic fundamentals. We evaluate the impact of political institutions and of those institutions specifically targeted at attracting migrants. For a dataset on 19th century migration, we find that economic and demographic differentials play a major role, but that the quality of institutions also matter. We produce evidence that both political and migration institutions represent significant factors of attraction, even after controlling for their potential endogeneity through a set of instruments exploiting colonial history and the institutions inherited from the past.