Migration in an Economic-Demographic Model for the Canadian Provinces

Abstract

This paper is a description of the structure of a multiregion economic-demographic model for the Canadian provinces. An important part of the demographic model is the estimation of net migration equations based on a human capital approach and incorporating the adding-up constraint that arises since the sum of the net migration flows across all provinces must be 0 in each period. These endogenous migration flows allow for variables from the economic model (wage rates and unemployment rates) to influence the source population, the labour force and, therefore, the unemployment rate and other variables in the economic model. This economic – demographic model is then used in simulation experiments designed to show the economic – demographic interactions and how these lead to a moderation in the effect of policy.