The effect of emigration on unemployment rates: the case or EU emigrant countries

This paper analyses the effects of emigration on emigrant countries' unemployment rates (short-term effect) in selected EU emigrant countries. The panel data analysis (fixed-effects model) covers the period from 2004 to 2015, and a total of nine EU countries: Bulgaria; Estonia; Greece; Croatia; Latvia; Lithuania; Poland; Portugal; and Romania. The obtained results show that emigration increases the unemployment rate in emigrant countries confirming that, besides generally expected positive effects in terms of a fall in unemployment, emigration could also have an adverse effect on emigrant countries' labour markets. Such results point to structural issues in the labour market caused by emigration, i.e., an increase in the labour supply and demand mismatch, which is discussed in the paper through the descriptive analysis of Job Vacancy Rate (JVR) data.