Bright Isaac Ikhenaode

Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Economics and Law

9, Via Del Castro Laurenziano, 00161 Rome
Phone: +39 348 916 2871
Email: bright.ikhenaode@uniroma1.it
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/uniroma1.it/brightikhenaode

Personal Information
Surname: Ikhenaode
Name: Bright Isaac
Birthdate: 31st January 1990
Citizenship: Italian

References
Prof. Carmelo Pierpaolo Parello
Department of Economics and Law
La Sapienza University of Rome
carmelo.parello@uniroma1.it
Prof. Frédéric Docquier
IRES
Université catholique de Louvain
frederic.docquier@uclouvain.be

Research Fields
Macroeconomics, International Migration, Economic Growth and Development, La-
bor Economics, Unemployment Theory.

Education
Oct 2015 - Present: PhD candidate in Economics
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Supervisor: Prof. Carmelo Pierpaolo Parello
July 2015: Master in Economics, summa cum laude
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Thesis: The impact of immigration on the host country
economic growth: complemetarity eects between immi-
grant and native workers in a Solow-type model
Supervisor: Prof. Carmelo Pierpaolo Parello
Co-Supervisor: Prof. Marilena Giannetti
Visiting Positions
Oct 2017 - Feb 2018: Visiting scholar, Université catholique de Louvain,
Institut de Recherches Économiques et Sociales (IRES)
Supervisor: Prof. Frédéric Docquier

Job Market Paper

Immigration, Skill Acquisition and Fiscal Redistribution in a Search-
Ikhenaode B.I.,
Equilibrium Model
Abstract: Focusing on a selected group of 19 OECD countries, we analyze the eects
of immigration on natives welfare, labor market outcomes and scal redistribution. To
this end, we build and simulate a search and matching model that allows for endogenous
natives skill acquisition and intergenerational transfers. The obtained results are then
compared with dierent variations of our benchmark model, allowing us to assess to what
extent natives skill adjustment and age composition aect the impact of immigration. Our
comparative statics analysis suggests that when natives adjust their skill in response to
immigration, they successfully avoid, under most scenarios, any potential displacement
eect in the labor market. Moreover, taking into account age composition plays a key
role in assessing the scal impact of immigration, which turns out to be positive when
we include retired workers that receive intergenerational transfers. Finally, we nd that,
under any scenario, our model yields more optimistic welfare eects than a standard search
model that abstracts from skill decision and intergenerational redistribution. These welfare
eects are found to be overall particularly positive when the migration ows comprise
high-skilled workers.

Working Papers
- Ikhenaode B.I., Parello C.P., Endogenous Migration in a Two-Country Model with Labor
Market Frictions, Working Papers 184, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of

Economics and Law

Abstract: We present a dynamic North-South model with search frictions and endogenous
labor migration to study the long-run implications of labor factor mobility on labor market
conditions and welfare. In the model, the high-TFP country (North) acts as the destination
country for migration, while the low-TFP country (South) acts as the origin country. We
prove that there always exists a unique steady-state equilibrium for the world economy,
and nd that a permanent increase in migration eort causes per capita income to rise
in North and to fall in South. However, our simulations also show the existence of a job
displacement eect in the host country that makes domestic employment fall in the long-
run. In an extension of the baseline model, we test the long-run eects of a pro-employment
protectionist policy of the destination country consisting in imposing a distortionary tax
on the domestic rms hiring migrant workers. Our analysis shows that a positive tax rate
on foreign employment can increase natives welfare, but only at the expense of losses in
national production and employment. These results are robust across dierent degrees of
substitutability between migrant and native workers.
- Docquier F., Ikhenaode B.I., Scheewel H., Immigration, Welfare and Inequality: How

Much Does the Labor Market Specication Matter?

Abstract: Macroeconomic models are increasingly used to quantify the welfare and in-
equality eects of immigration in the OECD countries. Existing studies dier in the way
they formalize the labor market responses for immigrants and natives, which in turn gov-
ern the strength of the other transmission channels (e.g. public nances, price index, or
total factor productivity). In this paper, we build and parameterize a general equilibrium
model that allows to compare seven labor market specications. These variants combine
dierent assumptions concerning labor supply decisions, unemployment rates and wage
levels, as well as dierent calibration strategies. Quantitatively, we nd that the labor
market specication matters. Modelling unemployment is instrumental to assessing the
average welfare eects from immigration, while modelling labor force participation is in-
strumental to assessing its inequality eects. The specication choice is usually more
important than the calibration of labor market elasticities, except for the choice of the
elasticity of substitution between immigrants and natives.

Accademic Presentations
2018, Endogenous Migration in a Two-Country Model with Labor Market Frictions (With
Parello C.P.). Université catholique de Louvain, IRES Macro Lunch seminar
2017, Endogenous Migration in a Two-Country Model with Labor Market Frictions (With
Parello C.P.). University of Pisa, 10th NED Conference - I CICSE Workshop

Fellowships and Grants

Doctoral fellowship awarded by Sapienza University of Rome (2015  2018)
Research Project Grant awarded by Sapienza University of Rome (2017)

Languages
Italian (mother tongue), English (uent), Spanish (basic).

Computer Skills
Econometric packages: Stata, R, ArcGIS, Eviews, Gretl
Mathematical packages: Mathematica, Matlab