Education and training are key to explain the current competitive strengths of national economies. While in the past educational and training institutions were often seen as providers of necessary skills for national economies, this view has changed, with education and training now being seen as a key ingredient for international competitiveness. This collection of papers on various aspects of the economics of education and training reflects this new interest.

Education and training are key to explain the current competitive strengths of national economies. While in the past educational and training institutions were often seen as providers of necessary skills for national economies, this view has changed, with education and training now being seen as a key ingredient for international competitiveness. This collection of papers on various aspects of the economics of education and training reflects this new interest.

This study paper contributes to the growing literature examining the effects emigration has on the labor markets of the sending countries, focusing on Poland for the period 1998-2007. A simple model has been developed that guides empirical specification, providing a clear interpretation for estimates. The data used is unique in that it contains information about household members who are currently living abroad, allowing the development of region specific emigration rates, and the ability to estimate the effect emigration has on wages, using within-region variation. The study provides estimates, using information on labor market shocks in the largest destination countries as instruments. The results show that emigration from Poland was largest for workers with intermediate skill levels and that it is the wages for this skill group that have increased most. It also shows that emigration led to a slight overall increase in wages, yet workers at the low end of the skill distribution did not make gains, but may have experienced slight wage decreases.

This paper contributes to a small but growing literature that studies the effects emigration has on the labour markets of the sending countries, focussing on Poland for the period 1998-2007. The data used is unique, in that it contains information about household members who are currently living abroad, allowing the researchers to develop region specific emigration rates, and to estimate the effect emigration has on wages, using within-region variation.

The changing economic reality of the last decades has prompted large movements of people across and within national borders, which, in turn, have given rise to new opportunities and challenges. This volume addresses a number of key aspects of these developments, by bringing together a unique collection of chapters, written by leading scholars from three different disciplines: economics, sociology, and political science. The first part of the book - Economic Change - starts with two case studies: The mass migration from the former Soviet Union to Israel in the early 1990s, and the mass migration from rural to urban areas in China that started in the mid 1990s. The final chapter of the first part provides a thorough introduction and overview into methodologies that can help to address numerous issues faced by researchers working with migration data, of the type underlying the analysis in the first two chapters. The second part of the book - Social Challenge - discusses how societies are shaped by immigration. It investigates the pitfalls of policies that do not take account of the implications for decisions of individual migrants; explores the important aspect of family re-unification and discusses whether society should follow a path towards a multicultural society or a society that forces newcomers to adopt existing cultures. Finally, this volume ponders whether the diversity created through migration impacts negatively on the societal structure of the receiving countries. These chapters together, written by some of the foremost experts in the areas, provide intriguing insights into the complexity of migratory phenomena and the challenges to policy and society at large.