Migration and Trade in the Mediterranean

Trade relations between the southern and northern shores of the Mediterranean are very uneven and depend largely on the geographical distance between countries, their history and the language spoken. The Mediterranean represents an interesting case to analyze, not only because there has been a increase in highly educated migrants, but also because both migrants and exported goods tend to move mainly from Southern shore countries to European countries, especially Southern European. The role of migrants in promoting international trade increases when migrant networks are better at receiving and processing information on trade and investment opportunities. Migrants certainly have more information on the types of products, distribution channels and so forth, which reduces the transaction costs of trade in goods of lower quality. Indeed, the network effect is larger in the first tercile while the lowest impact is for high quality products